In Germany, unemployment rose for the eighth month in a row, now amounting to 6.9%. Nevertheless, the rate is still around the lowest it has been in two decades. Economic confidence is rising in the eurozone, while consumer confidence has stuck to the same negative mark over the past two months. read article
Later today, we’ll get the weekly jobless claims from the US, still impacted by Sandy, expected to fall under 400,000.
There, the Fed is likely to continue its bond-purchasing program to jump-start the economy in 2013, while fiscal cliff negotiations continue in the background. The latest gossip: Erskine Bowles, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and co-chairman of the 2010 fiscal commission, said a deal was unlikely to by struck before the end of the year.
In Japan, consumer spending shrunk the most (5.8%) in almost a year in October, with drops in TV and car sales. Some of Japan’s largest tech companies, Sony and Panasonic, have announced reductions of employee numbers and both recorded losses in Q3. read article
HSBC, which decided to abandon its Japanese retail banking business this year, is looking to do the same in South Korea. Since the 1990s, HSBC has tried to set foot in Korea, first with the attempted purchase of SeoulBank in 1999, then with a takeover bid for Korea First bank in 2005 (now owned by Standard Chartered) and finally with a $6bn bid for Korea Exchange Bank in 2008 that was renounced. read article
Argentina won its appeal case against having to pay $1.33bn to its bondholders by December 15. A new repayment strategy has to be agreed on in early 2013. read article
The IMF called Kabul Bank a Ponzi scheme yesterday, after a group of individuals smuggled almost $1bn out of the country, sometimes in food trays of airplanes, to buy property in Dubai. Kabul Bank collapsed in 2010 and its bailout amounted to what was worth 5-6% of Afghanistan’s GDP. read article
So we have all these bad news, and just then, Bloomberg publishes survey results saying the world economy is in its best shape in 18 months, because China is likely to return to growth and the fiscal cliff is likely to be avoided… read article
So long.
