The World Trade Organisation warning

The World Trade Organisation has warned the outlook for global trade is deteriorating, citing the eurozone crisis as the main drag on growth.  The WTO slashed its forecast for global trade growth this year from 3.7% to 2.5% onprevious 20-year average. The WTO director general, Pascal Lamy, said there was more risk of things getting worse than better.

The news came as Brazil's finance minister lambasted the US and Japan for their latest rounds of quantitative easing, which will devalue their currencies and, he said, trigger a global currency war.

Next year the WTO expects trade to grow by 4.5%, compared with previous forecasts of 5.6% growth. That forecast is, however, based on the assumption that current policy measures will be enough to avoid a breakup of the euro and that US politicians will reach an agreement to stabilise public finances and avoid the "fiscal cliff". The WTO is targeting 1.5% growth in exports from developed economies, down from its previous forecast of 2% growth. The situation has deteriorated even more for developing countries, where the WTO cut its forecast from 5.6% growth to 3.5%.

 

back on the continent ....

Why is it that when people decide to drill into their gold they find tungsten in the middle, would be nice to have people find only gold, but most that have drilled have only found tungsten, bars from the switzerland, london and NY seems to be faked on a huge scale, have any of these countries got any gold, i think it has all been shipped of the planet, lol, it is the only answer, bet we find most of the gold has vanished and we have 1000's of tons of tungsten, lol, could the tales of enki be true, lol, we must have a world wide gold audit....Back to the Continent, where German MPs reportedly want the ECB to limit its bank supervision to the eurozone's major lenders. Proposals seen by Reuters also showed that MPs from Chancellor Angela Merkel's party and their Free Democrat (FDP) allies reject proposals for cross-border bank deposit insurance, which they want to remain the responsibility of individual states.

Greece has pledged to raise €50bn from state assets by 2020 as part of bail-out conditions imposed by international lenders.

Germany has also got a debt auction away this morning, where it has paid next to nothing to sell two-year bonds. ...The country sold €4.084bn of two-year debt at average yields of 0.06pc, slightly up from the zero (yes, ZERO) percent it paid in August.  Demand was higher, with 2.1 bidders for every bond on offer, compared with 1.5 in August.

Portugal has got a debt auction away this morning, where it has sold short term bonds at markedly lower rates. The country sold €1.3bn of 18-month Treasury bills at average yields of 2.967pc, compared with 4.537pc at a previous auction in April. It also sold €700m of six month debt at average yields of 1.7pc (vs 2.292pc