The Governing Council of the ECB decided to legally construct a multiple
system with the highest degree of harmonization of the legal documentation used
by the central banks within the constraints of their respective national legal
framework, named TARGET2. All ECB legal acts related to TARGET2 can be found
on a dedicated website.
TARGET2 is the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system owned and operated by
the Euro system. TARGET stands for Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross
settlement Express Transfer system. TARGET2 is the second generation of TARGET.
Payment transactions are settled one by one on a continuous basis in central
bank money with immediate finality. There is no upper or lower limit on the
value of payments. TARGET2 mainly settles operations of monetary policy and
money market operations. TARGET2 has to be used for all payments involving the
Euro system, as well as for the settlement of operations of all large-value net
settlement systems and securities settlement systems handling the euro. TARGET2
is operated on a single technical platform. The business relationships are
established between the TARGET2 users and their National Central Bank. In terms
of the value processed, TARGET2 is one of the largest payment systems in the
world.- TARGET2 had 999 direct participants, 3,386 indirect participants and 13,313 correspondents;
- TARGET2 settled the cash positions of 82 ancillary systems;
- TARGET2 processed a daily average of 354,185 payments, representing a daily average value of €2,477 billion;
- the average value of a TARGET2 transaction was €7,1 million;
- two-thirds of all TARGET2 payments (i.e. 68%) had a value of less than €50,000 each; 11% of all payments had value of over 1 EUR million each;
- the peak in volume turnover was 29 June 2012 with 536,524 transactions and peak value turnover was on 1 March 2012 with €3,718 billion;
- TARGET2’s share in total large-value payment system traffic in euro was 92% in value terms and 58% in volume terms;
- the SSP technical availability was 100%;
- 99.98% of TARGET2 payments were processed in less than five minutes.
Europe just went through a debt crisis that was entirely avoidable. Iceland showed us the way in 2008, no sovereign debt crisis there.
Unemployment below 5%, 7 consecutive quarters of growth averaging 2.5% per annum as of January this year. More GDP growth than other Nordic countries.
No wonder the rest of Europe is disillusioned. People are fed up with paying through the nose for debts that don't belong to them.
The burden of banking debts is tearing apart social cohesion.
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France's economy is now 0.4% smaller than a year ago.
Here's how its economic outlook fared over the last four quarters.
Q1 2013: -0.2% quarter-on-quarter
Q4 2012: -0.2% q/q
Q3: 2012: +0.1% q/q
Q2: 2012: -0.1% q/q
Updated at 7.58am BST
7.39am BST
Will Eurozone recession continue?
We find out at 10am BST if the eurozone is still in recession, when overall GDP for the region is published.
Economists had expected a small contraction, of 0.1%. Today's weak data from France (6.44am) and Germany (7.06am) suggests the true figures might be worse...
If so, expect fresh calls for Eurozone leaders to adopt new growth measures, as a matter of urgency,
Michael Hewson of CMC Markets commented:
Today’s latest Q1 GDP numbers are expected to show that the European economy is far from on the right track as EU leaders continue to argue about the merits or otherwise of banking union while economic growth continues to remain elusive and unemployment continues to explode higher, especially for those under 25
Czech Republic GDP slides as recession continues
Gloomy data from the Czech Republic this morning -- GDP shrank by 0.8% in Q1 2013. That follows a 0.2% contraction in Q4 2012.
The Czech Republic has now been in recession for the last 5 quarters.....
France has fallen into recession, as Europe's second largest economy is dragged deeper into the eurozone slump.
Data just released showed that its economy shrank by 0.2% in the first three months of 2013, following a 0.2% contraction at the end of last year. Economists had expected a 0.1% drop.
The figures pile more pressure on François Hollande, who already faces falling public support, record unemployment and pressure from Brussels to reform the French economy.
We'll find out this morning if the eurozone itself is still in recession, with GDP data from several other countries due this morning - including Germany in a few minutes.
it's going to be a busy day... with UK unemployment at 9.30am and the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report -- Sir Mervyn King's last one -- at 10.30am.
French Economy in Recession
The French economy contracted for the second consecutive quarter, while Germany narrowly avoided recession with 0.1% growth, data showed
The EC said it had “concerns” that several companies may have manipulated the oil price benchmark in violation of EU antitrust rules, potentially having a “huge impact” on oil and petrol prices.
The Commission said that on Tuesday it had raided the offices of “several companies active in and providing services to the crude oil, refined oil products and biofuels sectors”.
BP, Shell, Statoil and price-reporting agency Platts all confirmed they were co-operating with the EC investigation.
Statoil said the suspected violations “related to the Platts’ Market-On-Close (MOC) price assessment process” and “may have been on-going since 2002”.
In a statement, the EC said: “The Commission has concerns that the companies may have colluded in reporting distorted prices to a Price Reporting Agency to manipulate the published prices for a number of oil and biofuel products.
A doua mare economie a lumii are probleme mari cu datoria, scriu americanii de la CNN Money, care arată că boom-ul imobiliar bazat pe credite continuă să îngroape China tot mai mult în datorii.
Americanii se bazează pe un studiu al băncii elveţiene UBS care a calculat datoria guvernamentală a Chinei şi care s-ar ridica la nivelul de 15% din PIB. Nivelul creşte la 55% din PIB dacă socotim şi datoriile guvernelor locale şi ale agenţiilor guvernamentale.
Mai mult, dacă se pun la socoteală datoriile companiilor şi gospodpăriilor, datoria totală a Chinei ajunge la peste 200% din PIB, scrie CNN Money, care arată că la acest indicator sunt state care stau chiar mai prost, incluzând Statele Unite şi Japonia. Diferenţa este că în cazul Chinei, vorbim de statele în curs de dezvoltare, iar dintre acestea, China are cea mai mare datorie totală.
Analiştii băncii elveţiene spun că datoria Chinei este una îngrijorătoare, chiar dacă ţara a scpăpat de o aterizare forţată a economiei.
The French recession could deepen the split between Paris and Berlin, Paul Donovan of UBS has predicted.
He believes Francois Hollande could now renew his push for Europe to ease its fiscal plans:
The worst of times seem in evidence in the Euro area, where French GDP fell 0.2% on the quarter (the third time in four years France has had two consecutive quarters negative GDP). The real threat here is this spurs the French government to push for policies that are odds with those of Germany.
France has already been promised another two years in which to bring its deficit below the 3% target.
Official figures show France has entered its second recession in four years after the economy shrank by 0.2% in the first quarter of the year.
Its economy shrank by the same amount in the last quarter of 2012. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
France has record unemployment and low business and consumer confidence.
German figures, also released, showed its economy, the eurozone's strongest, grew by just 0.1% in the first quarter.
France entered its worst recession since World War II in 2009. Although it was thought to have been in recession in 2012, these figures have now been revised to show only one quarter of negative growth.
The news comes on the first anniversary of Francois Hollande being sworn in as president.
Earlier this month, the European Commission warned that France would enter recession this year and said the eurozone's economy would shrink by 0.4%.
The European Central Bank cut interest rates at its last meeting to a record low of 0.5% in an attempt to stimulate growth.
In France, the rate of unemployment is running at 10.6% and is forecast to rise further next year.
Its deficit is also expected to rise sharply, the commission says, to 3.9% of GDP - well above the EU deficit target of 3%.
But French unemployment is below the eurozone average, which was 11.4% in 2012 and is expected to hit an average of 12.2% this year. In both Greece and Spain, it is expected to peak at 27%.
The German growth figure was far weaker than expected. Economists had expected to see growth of 0.3% in the first quarter.
Annual figures from the Statistics Office also show the German economy has shrunk by 1.4% when compared with a year ago.
But in a statement it said this was partly due to severe winter weather: "The German economy is only slowly picking up steam. The extreme winter weather played a role in this weak growth."
Known today as “The Iron Lady of Europe,” it’s difficult to imagine Angela Merkel peddling propaganda for East Germany’s Communist youth league. But according to a new book, “The First Life of Angela M.,” the conservative chancellor served as a senior member of several Communist organisations before reunification in 1990.
Published in Germany on Monday, the book by journalists Günther Lachmann and Ralf Georg Reuth is unlikely to prove easy reading for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party (CDU), which is preparing for September’s general election – in which Merkel is seeking a third term in office.
According to the book, 58-year-old Merkel was active in various political organisations while studying for her doctorate and working as a researcher at university. The list includes the Free German Youth movement (the FDJ, the official youth wing of the German Democratic Republic, or GDR), the major workers’ union, and the Society for German-Soviet Friendship.
The First Life of Angela M.
The revelation most likely to cause embarrassment to Merkel is her post as propaganda functionary at the FDJ. Until now, Merkel had only mentioned her duties as “culture functionary” at the youth wing.
‘Falling back on memories’
The book also portrays Merkel as a symbol of anti-reunification following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The woman who boasts today of an economically triumphant unified Germany, it says, would have preferred in 1989 to see the GDR remain an independent and socialist state, reborn as the German Federal Republic.
Merkel’s political rivals have been quick to press the chancellor on the accusations, which have been widely publicised in the German press. On Monday Merkel denied the claims, saying that she never mentioned certain things because “nobody ever asked” her.
“I can only fall back on my memories,” she said. “If something else turns up, then I can live with it. What is important to me is that I never kept anything secret.”
CDU state parliament leader Mike Mohring, a fellow conservative, defended Merkel on Monday, telling reporters she “never went too far” in her work for the FDJ when he was questioned over any potential links Merkel could have had with Stasi intelligence services and the regime itself.
But for specialists of East German political history, the chancellor’s involvement with the FDJ and other youth outfits is far from surprising. “Being a member of these organisations was almost obligatory for a young science student hoping to make a career for themselves in East Germany,” Stefan Wolle, head of science at the GDR Museum in Berlin, explained to German news magazine Focus.
For Wolle, Merkel’s upbringing should be seen as testament to her strength in the political sphere. As the daughter of a pastor in a strictly anti-religious environment, Merkel was faced with an immediate handicap, Wolle explained. The fact that she succeeded within Communist regime affiliated groups can only be a positive thing, he said.
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