It changes by the hour ....what a circus !!! lies and deceit and that's all !!

Good news for the European economy: retail sales were much stronger than expected in August.

Eurostat reported that retail sales volumes rose by 0.7% in the euro area, and 0.4% across the wider European Union in August. July's data was also revised higher, showing consumers weren't as cautious about spending as first thought.

Eurozone retail sales to August 2013 Photograph: /Eurostat

Eurostat's data shows that non-food shopping was strong, rising by 0.6% in the eurozone. That covers items such as computers, clothing and medical products.

The data also showed an increase in fuel purchases, suggesting a rise in motor journeys. Spending on "automotive fuel in specialized stores" (that's petrol stations to you and me) was up by 0.9% across euro members.

The eurozone recovery is gathering pace, with its private sector firms reporting the biggest leap in activity since June 2011 last month.

Data firm Markit's monthly surveys of companies across the single currency showed a solid rise in activity.

New business has picked up, and the rate of job cuts may finally be slowing to a halt.

Markit's monthly survey of activity came in at 52.2, up from August's 51.5. Both service sector firms and manufacturers said conditions were better.

Photograph: Markit

Here's some key factoids from the report (online here)

Ireland: 55.7 2-month low
Germany: 53.2 2-month low
Italy: 52.8 29-month high
France: 50.5 20-month high
Spain: 49.6 2-month low

The news comes hours after China's service sector output hit a 6-month high.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said the eurozone data showed Europe's recovery on track, despite Spain's private firms faltering after a better August.

‘The mystery of Mario Draghi the Invisible Man is more disturbing in some ways. I posted about Schäuble briefing bigtime against him the week before last, and I now think it boils down to two serious possibilities. The first is that Berlin has somehow neutralised the ECB boss, and told him to stay out of public eye and leave it to them. If so, he has managed very well to be AWOL during a classic Brussels-am-Berlin cock-up. But even as the ECB demanded a Nicosia decision by Monday and then demanded more money after the Moscow talks broke down, SuperMario was nowhere to be seen. That is odd.

The second possibility – and one I increasingly favour – is that from the outset Mario Draghi saw Cyprus as a distraction, no more: he knows that via his control over the banking purse-strings, he can bring the island to its knees any time he likes. Either he knew (or guessed) that the Berlin mentality would jackboot into the situation and use it as a test-case for (a) future events where threats are felt to be necessary and (b) setting the precedent for State theft of depositor funds under the guise of bollocks like Open Bank Recontruction (OBR) or fantasy ‘levies’. Of course, he would prefer to be away from that grubby operation, but I return to the key word here – distraction: Germany’s aim is control; Draghi’s aim is the survival of the euro, whatever it might cost. The two need not be the same, and in the long term probably won’t be….Personally, I suspect what he plans to do adds up to yet another form of citizen pauperisation alongside the bank robbery approach…. in Frankfurt, Marketwatch opined as follows: ‘the precedents set by the Cyprus deal have undermined the euro in a very important way. The imposition of capital controls–a euro-zone first–now means that a euro held in a Cypriot bank account can’t be moved, withdrawn or even spent with the same ease as a euro held in a bank account in Germany, France or anywhere else in the 17-nation eurozone. Simply put, a “Cypriot euro” is worth less than a euro held in a bank account anywhere else".

The whole idea of EMU a nonsense: it is, in fact, the beginning of the end of EMU. In a client note after the true level of Cyprus haircut was announced, Deutsche Bank strategist George Saravelos wrote, ‘Economic and monetary union across the entire euro zone no longer exists. Even though [Cyprus] is very small, policy makers’ willingness to suspend cross-border euro convertibility is a meaningfully negative signal for the euro zone.’ The economics boffins at Nomura concurred: ‘Common currency, by definition, means that a euro in country A is equivalent to a euro in country B’ they wrote. UBS Head of Global Economics Paul Donovan told CNBC, “If you impose capital controls, effectively, the monetary union is dead.”. And perhaps most chilling of all, David Mann, Regional Head of Research for the Americas at Standard Chartered Bank says, “There is no point in anyone claiming they know what’s coming next. It’s [capital controls] gone from something hardly mentioned a week ago to something that is being taken absolutely seriously enough to be running into a real scenario. But it has to be instant. Bank runs can literally be electronic — they happen at a touch of the button.”

Growth in China, Risks in the USA...If the situation in Southern Europe doesn't improve in 2013, the German economy will become even more dependent on consumers in the rest of the world -- particularly in the United States and China.

Concerns about a slump in Chinese growth have eased recently, with the World Bank revising its growth forecast upwards. And demand from emerging economies continues to be good.

But the situation in the US is more difficult. President Barack Obama's re-election has dispelled some uncertainty, but the country's political divide is deeper than ever before. The brinkmanship that saw a deal reached on Jan. 1 on the "fiscal cliff" may have averted disaster, but it hardly inspires confidence in the world's largest economy. And while there may have been a last-minute deal, it is difficult to predict what effect it will have. After the Democrats and Republicans reached an 11th-hour deal on the budget in 2011, rating agency Standard & Poor's responded to the deal by stripping the US of its highest rating.

The shakier the global economy, the more important domestic demand becomes. In Germany, companies have been wavering for some time, with investment in new equipment declining over the past year. Consumers, on the other hand, have been a driver of the German economy, a first in a country that has often been criticized for its heavily export-dependent economy.

"Even during the financial crisis, consumption was solid as a rock," said Ifo's Carstensen. "That was because the labor market was supported by measures such as shorter working hours."

However, at the end of 2012, that mood deteriorated, with the GfK consumer confidence index falling twice in a row, largely because of fears over employment prospects. According to a survey by insurer Allianz, the fear of job losses has increased significantly over the past year. Thus far, many German companies had continued to hire new staff, while existing workers benefited from salary increases secured through collective bargaining agreements. According to Weber, however, "that positive trend in the labor market is broken."

During the 2009 financial crisis, after the federal government introduced its short-time working program, many German companies sucessfully avoided layoffs. And Weber believes 2013 will not see any catastrophic plunge. "There will be no major downturn," he says, but rather "more of a long, drawn-out dampening."

The Single Market is like a customs union. Tax and duty paid in one member country is deemed as tax and duty paid in another member country and so goods are free to move across borders between members. Many readers eher will not remember the bad old days when trucks crossing borders had to queue and wait for a customs official to measure the amount of diesel in the fuel tank and then the driver had to pay tax on the import of that fuel into that particular country. Only passenger vehicles were exempt.

Hannah is simply playing word games. He admits the EU is internally a free trade area but, the fact that it is not free and open to the world is not unusual. Most of the world is not free and open to the EU or to many other parts of the world.

Hannah provides examples of free trade areas, Nafta (Canada, the United States and Mexico) and ASEAN (ten South East Asian states). The EU is setting up similar Free Trade Agreements, EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement, EU- Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, EU-US Transatlantic Economic Council, EU-India Free Trade Agreement, EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement.

Hannah says nothing but he does demonstrate his naivety; "The optimum deal for the United Kingdom is surely to be in a European free trade area but not in a customs union." That's like saying that the optimum deal for the United Kingdom is one where the UK is the sole winner.

We'd all like unlimted freedoms but with no attached responsibilities but you will never ever eliminate 'if you sell to him, I won't sell to you' and very quickly, 'and I'll ask my mate not to supply you at all'. Deals are struck, bargains are made. No one allows a single trader to take all the profit.

"EU assembly" ( in fact a bunch of retards )

Members of the "EU assembly" ( in fact a bunch of retards ) have been chastised for revealing details of a confidential briefing with ECB president, Mario Draghi. Mr Draghi was taking part in a hearing organised by the EU assembly's economic and monetary affairs committee on the future of the euro and plans to build a so-called banking union. Jean-Paul Gauzes, a French member of the panel, commented that Mr Draghi had told the committee that he was comfortable with the central bank buying bonds with maturities up to about three years. Members had their knuckles rapped over leaking their briefing, with the committee chairman Sharon Bowles saying the leaks were “a complete breach of confidence". "I think it has brought this house into disrepute,” she added.

Bloomberg reported: While it had originally been intended that Draghi’s hearing with lawmakers would be public, that plan was changed because of the convention that senior ECB officials don't comment publicly on policy in the week before an ECB Governing Council meeting, according to a parliament spokesman.

Moodys have downgraded 28 Spanish banks recently to just above junk status, also downgrading several Italian banks because of the contagion effect.The whole of Europe is utterly screwed by a debt mountain that cant ever possibly be paid off....Unless the ECB can magic up another 500 billion in a vain attempt to stop Spain and Italy going down the tube. ... We have politicians across the EU without a backbone between them, clenching their buttocks as hard as possible to not be the first to publicly shit themselves in panic. Yet the EU keeps a triple A credit rating. That sounds like a ponzi scheme to me...

QUATRO REICH = THE EUROPEAN UNION

EUROPEAN UNION —The European Central Bank should police the more than 6,000 banks in the euro zone, the European Union's executive said Friday, setting itself up for a clash with Germany, which wants to retain oversight over smaller lenders.  A proposal from the European Commission, to be finalized in coming days, will call for the central bank to set up an agency to take responsibility for supervision of all banks in the 17-nation currency area. The proposal follows a June decision from euro-zone leaders who wanted the supervisor created as a step to break the "vicious circle" between weak banks and governments with strained finances that have eroded confidence in the euro zone. The proposal, however, falls far short of creating the true "banking union" that the ECB and the commission have called for. It doesn't set up a regional fund for guaranteeing bank deposits or give powers to euro-zone agencies to wind down or restructure shaky banks and distribute losses among investors. The ECB would, however, be able to take operating licenses away from unstable lenders. The supervisory agency would be run by a separate decision-making panel at arm's length from the ECB, in an effort to prevent conflicts of interests with the central bank's main role of fighting inflation and to allow EU states that don't use the euro to join.   As the supervisor, the ECB would have to make sure banks build up sufficient capital levels to absorb economic and financial shocks—such as the real-estate crashes that triggered the Irish and Spanish problems or over-investments in shoddy products like the U.S. subprime mortgages that sank banks across Europe in 2008.The threat to withdraw a license would be the ECB's most potent enforcement tool. "That's the first crucial element: to empower the European supervisor with the right to withdraw the license," said Guntram Wolff, deputy director of Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. But other powers and responsibilities that are central to creating a unified banking framework for the euro zone would remain in national hands. Proposals that would force private investors to share the burden—for instance by converting debt into equity once a bank's capital falls below are certain level—aren't set to come into force until 2018. In a sign of possible movement, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, in an opinion piece in the Financial Times Friday, said the so-called bail-in mechanism should already come into force in 2015. (WSJ)

'If Germany goes under then the Titanic really hits the iceberg'

The Chinese are worried that Europe is going to collapse. The Europeans are worried that China is going to Collapse. Actually both are headed for Collapse. European demand comes from the north europeans lending to south europeans to consume in the hope that because they are in Eurozone, they will get repaid. Not going to happen, all that is lent will be written off one way or another.

Chinese demand is based on construction of empty cities, empty skyscrapers, trains on which nobody rides, highways and bridges to nowhere, municipal offices that look like palaces and factories to produce this malinvestment.

There is a saying in Chinese, A day comes when the yellow river clears. Well, the Chinese have run out of money, construction has halted across china, steel is piling up, iron ore is piling up. Dealers are choking on unsold cars. Nobody is taking delivery of ships the shipbuilders are building. Don't expect the chinese to keep buying German cars, French wine , Italian leather or Swiss watches. The south europeans have run out of money, don't expect them to buy chinese toys or electronics....Money supply numbers may be just based on channel stuffing. Don't expect it to put food on your table. Inventory liquidation will start soon, then we will find out who has been swimming without clothes

Isay : Merkel desperately sucking up to the Chinese, hoping that they can take up the slack for the increasing effect of falling demand in the Eurozone, to paraphrase a pundit on RT today, 'If Germany goes under then the Titanic really hits the iceberg'

What the incompetent idiot stated :Rehn added that the euro was "irreversible"....hahaha!

Spanish banks borrowed a record €402bn (£316bn) from the European Central Bank in July, leaving them as far as ever from returning to capital markets, and heaping further pressure on Madrid as it tries to avert a full sovereign bailout. The banks borrowed 10% more than the €365bn they tapped in June, Tuesday's data from the Bank of Spain showed. Spiralling debt costs and balance sheets ravaged by a domestic property bubble that collapsed in 2008 have shut most domestic banks out of the bond markets. The banks' use of the ECB facility has increased sharply this year, rising from €161bn in January, and the sector was propped up in July with the promise of a European rescue package – which it has yet to tap – worth up to €100bn. The pattern is similar if less acute in Italy – like Spain at the sharp end of the eurozone debt crisis – where banks held €283bn in ECB funds in July compared with €281bn in June, Bank of Italy data showed last week. In Spain, only heavyweights with big operations abroad such as Santander and BBVA continue to have few problems raising funding from the market. One likely factor in the July increase was the higher charges that some clearing houses were levying on the use of Spanish bonds – which many domestic banks have invested heavily in – as collateral for raising funds, one analyst said. The eurozone has avoided entering a technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, because growth was flat over the first three months of 2012. Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight predicted that GDP will fall again during the current quarter. Archer said the eurozone was "struggling against tight fiscal policy in many countries, high and rising unemployment, muted global economic activity and ongoing serious sovereign debt tensions that weigh down on confidence and limit investment. Stock markets, however, were cheered by the news as the contraction was smaller than expected and share prices rose across Europe. The FTSE 100 finished 32 points higher at 5864, while the DAX closed 0.8% higher. The European commission vice-president, Olli Rehn, told CNBC that the EU and the European Central Bank would take action "once certain conditions are met". Rehn added that the euro was "irreversible".

Post for ....3/25/2012

"To me, we are still in a crisis," Mr Trichet said. "It is not just the privilege of Europe to still be in a crisis." Starting 35 years ago with Latin America and Asia, the global economy remains in period of structural adaptation, he aid, with major western economies currently the focus. Mr Trichet : a mix of globalization and the instant transmission of information to investors made possible by the internet may have made a permanent change to the financial system. Without defining it, Mr Trichet suggested it may present a new "tail risk" to policymakers. "That is something to do with behavioural contagion that is not captured by traditional modelling." In a visit to Harvard University earlier this week, Mr Trichet insisted that "I don't regret anything " about the ECB's policy while he was leading it during the crisis. The ECB was widely criticised for raising interest rates last April. The increase has since been reversed.I would have thought that technological innovation and emerging markets should have boosted the real economy in the last decades. But unfortunately the real economy is infested with financial parasites, and the structural adaption he talks about is the transformation of the world into a latin american society - some mega-rich corrupt parasites, the rest starving and treated like domestic animals.

The Frankfurt Group, as it's known, is composed of the leaders of France and Germany, the heads of the ECB and IMF, as well as three top EU officials.

A select group of top EU officials have met behind closed doors. The Frankfurt Group, as it's known, is composed of the leaders of France and Germany, the heads of the ECB and IMF, as well as three top EU officials. They met secretly to forge a common line ahead of the main event. On her way in, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said her institution was ready to take part in the leaders' desperate struggle to save the euro but insisted on "decisive" and "coordinated" action. The over-riding concern of the German is that one's currency above all else be a store of value. One's national currency is not a device to ensure the profits of the banking industry or wealthy individuals who made poor bets in the credit markets. National currency is not some abstract Keynesian lever to be pulled by the economic dons to protect their best friends and future or past employers. The power brokers in the Anglo world are defending the absolute right of those who benefit from 40:1 leverage and then expect a bail-out by devaluing the national currency. This is not a position that finds sympathy with the typical German but apparently is a good fit for the City of London. Basing one's national wealth on financial services is the same as basing future economic wealth on haircuts or laundry service. Finance is a service, plain and simple, just like policing or the fire department. Money creation in any society is not a private right, it is societal function that reflects the growth in tangible value, not the private domain of a central banker for the sole benefit of his friends in the bond and equity markets. So if you want to ensure the right of every investment banker and financial engineer to provide the latest breast implant upgrade for his mistress, go right ahead. I for one hope Angela Merkel brings down economic hell on the Central Bankers in the Anglo world and their spineless politicians who make my hard won savings more worthless on a daily basis. Ellen Synon reports in the Irish Daily Mail: "I understand from a well-placed source that they won’t be allowed out again until they’ve agreed it, or something close to it. The plan has been already been worked out by Mr Van Rompuy under the direction of the Germans, also José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, and Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg and president of the Eurogroup. I say that just to point out that the only brush with democracy this plan has had is the electorate of Luxembourg (electorate approximately 400,000) when they voted to put Mr Juncker in as their prime minister." And that is the only brush with democracy the euro-elite intend that their plan shall have. Mr Van Rompuy and his mates are determined there will be fiscal integration in the eurozone, with member states forced to change their own constitutions to accept sanctions on debt and deficits, and to enforce balanced budgets, and submit their budgets to the new supranational power of EU. The euro-elite intend to give the European Court of Justice the power to enforce their agreement.

The costs of insuring European Bank Debt against default fell Friday amid hopes that policymakers are nearing a solution to the debt crisis. In early trading Friday, the five-year CDS spreads on core European financial companies mostly fell, with senior and subordinated banking indexes both tightening, according to Markit. The CDS spreads on major lenders in Germany and France narrowed, with Deutsche Bank AG (DB) and Credit Agricole SA (ACA.FR) tightening the most. Deutsche Bank tightened 10 basis points to 229 basis points, while Credit Agricole tightened nine basis points to 265 basis points. Commerzbank AG (CBK.XE) saw its five-year CDS spread tighten four basis points to 306 basis points, with both BNP Paribas SA (BNP.FR) and Societe Generale SA (GLE.FR) also tightening four basis points. BNP Paribas was back on par with Credit Agricole at 265 basis points, while Societe Generale tightened to 331 basis points. Italian bank UniCredit SpA (UCG.MI) was the only major bank in the core euro-zone economies to see its CDS spread widen, advancing one basis point to 590 basis points. Spanish banks all pushed lower with Banco Popular Espanol SA (POP.MC) narrowing the most, tightening 21 basis points to 840 basis points. At around 0925 GMT, the iTraxx Europe Senior Financials index was six basis points tighter at 284/289 basis points, while the Subordinated Financials index tightened 12 basis points to 503/514 basis points, according to Markit. Credit default swaps are derivatives that function like a default insurance contract for debt. If a borrower defaults, sellers compensate buyers.

The prospect of a euro zone breakup intensified

The prospect of a euro zone breakup intensified on Tuesday night as borrowing costs around the region soared and the Dutch prime minister said it should be possible to expel some members from the currency union. Investors are rapidly losing hope that a solution to the sovereign debt crisis will be found, and their fear was demonstrated by rising bond yields – the rate of interest governments have to pay to borrow – across almost all single-currency countries. The Dutch premier, Mark Rutte, stoked fears that a collapse could become a reality as he aired the prospect of countries being ejected, albeit as a last resort. "We would like countries to be able to be pushed out of the euro zone," Rutte said on a visit to London, adding member countries must "put out the fire" of the debt crisis. As analysts warned of "terror taking hold", even some of those countries until now regarded as safe havens, such as the Netherlands, came under pressure as fears about countries' creditworthiness spread from peripheral countries such as Greece into Europe's core. One bond expert described this as the most worrying day yet in the crisis - he said - France was now suffering a "full-blown run" on its debt, with investors dumping French bonds to move their money to safer havens. The source added that the credit default swap (CDS) market – where investors in effect bet on the prospects of countries going bust – now indicates that the chance of France losing its coveted top AAA rating is a near certainty. Italy's growth figures for the third quarter have yet to be released, but the latest update for the euro zone does not bode well. The 17-nation group grew by just 0.2% during the quarter, and many forecasts expect the euro zone economy to contract in the final months of this year. In Spain, there was more evidence of investors' frayed nerves as the government was forced to pay out its highest borrowing costs in 14 years on new debt. Investors did come forward with enough money, but Spain's borrowing costs shot up to more than 5%, compared with less than 4% at similar recent sales. Belgium was victim to the same flight from eurozone bonds, and yields on a sale of 12-month debt by Brussels were at a three-month high. Investors were looking outside the currency union, and Switzerland fared rather differently at its latest debt auction. Its sale of six-month bills had an average interest rate of -0.3%. In other words, investors are paying the Swiss government for the privilege of lending their money to the country.

The FTSE 100 closed down 2.35pc, the Dax in Frankfurt fell 4.04pc, and the CAC in Paris was down 3.6pc following the news that Mr Stark, the top German official at the ECB, was leaving due to "personal reasons". Sources said his departure reflected a deep rift at the heart of the ECB, with Mr Stark opposed to the bank's policy of buying eurozone bonds to support highly indebted countries like Italy and Spain. Mr Stark was considered to be a hawk at the bank, favoring looser monetary policy including higher interest rates. The news came amid clear divisions in the G7 ahead of the two-day meeting, which began on Friday. Before arriving in Marseilles, Chancellor George Osborne was adamant that he would not waver from his austerity plan. "Britain will stick to the deficit plan we've set out," he said. However, Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, said that policymakers in advanced economies should use all available tools to boost growth as the world economy entered a "dangerous new phase". Speaking alongside the Chancellor at Chatham House, she said that while Britain's £110bn deficit reduction plan was "appropriate", policymakers should be "nimble." An EU official in Marseilles admitted that Mr Stark's resignation was unhelpful: "People weren't expecting this and the timing is bad," he said. Joshua Raymond, chief market strategist at City Index, took a similar line: "[Stark's departure] escalates investor fears that Europe's leaders and central bankers are far from united in ideology at a time when the markets need to see credible and definitive action to prevent the sovereign debt crisis from sending European economies back into recession." Just hours after his resignation, Mr Stark called for drastic reforms to strengthen economic governance of the euro zone. He said that a "quantum leap" is necessary "at the European level" to reinforce its institutions. He added that "a large reform of decision-making mechanisms and sanctions" is necessary in order to secure in the future effective coordination of economic and fiscal policies of the euro zone countries. "We find ourselves in a situation where risks to public budgets undermine financial stability," wrote Stark.

The yield on 10-year Spanish bonds popped back above 6% yesterday and Italian 10-year yields stand at 5.66%. Such rates, if sustained for long periods, are simply unaffordable. Unsurprisingly, bank shares across Europe were also whacked yesterday. The problem is twofold. First, the politicians didn't get to grips with the size of Greece's debt problems. After a round of modest haircuts for private-sector creditors and a reduction in the rate on the interest rate charged on the bail-out loans, the country's debt-to-GDP ratio should no longer hit 170% soon. But the revised figure – maybe 130% – still looks too high to allow Greece to recover. Its economy is still too uncompetitive and you have to be an extreme optimist to believe tax receipts will arrive when they are due. So a third Greek bailout looks like only a matter of time. Get ready for more bitter rows over how the pain should be distributed between holders of Greek bonds and the taxpayers of other eurozone countries. That is no way to encourage companies to invest or consumers to spend – but it is the way to try the patience of German taxpayers. The second problem is the design of the European Financial Stability Facility – the rescue fund that is to be the first line of defence against speculative attacks. But how would Italy and Spain be defended in practice? The EFSF has been handed powers to intervene but no new cash. A fighting fund would have to be raised by passing the hat round member states – a challenge that looks a tall order today.

Two of the leading Petrom top managers, who were in the company's management team ever since the privatisation of the oil and gas producer in 2004, have this year left to carry out the reorganisation of OMV's latest acquisition: Petrol Ofisi."I won't be talking about Petrom today because it is already going in the right direction, of integration. Let's talk about Turkey." This was one of the opening messages conveyed by Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, CEO of OMV in London, at the latest media summit organised by the Austrian oil group, Petrom's majority shareholder.
In mid-October, OMV finalised the acquisition of Turkey's biggest petrol station chain, Petrol Ofisi, for which it paid one billion euros, securing a significant share of a market credited with the biggest chances of growth in the next period.Reinhard Pichler, 49, former CFO of Petrom, left his position last week, being replaced by Daniel Turnheim, a member of the OMV group since back in 2002. Pichler is not leaving the group, however, but will go to Turkey, where he will fill the same position he has occupied in Petrom since 2004.At the beginning of this year Tamas Mayer, who used to be in charge of Petrom's marketing operations, i.e. of the nearly 550 distribution stations, left the position to become Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Petrol Ofisi. According to some sources, Mayer will be running marketing operations within Petrol Ofisi, as well.Agerpres, Mediafax, Romanian Vancouver Sun,Global News, Financial Times,Tribune, ,Wall Street Journal,The Washington Times,Athens News,The New York Times,USA Today,Le Monde

IMF to relax deficit targets for the co-funding of more EU projects

The IMF should relax budgetary gap targets for Romania so that more EU projects could be co-funded, states Andreas Treichl, a CEO with Erste Group, which controls BCR. "Romania is in a situation of conflicting objectives: its strong advantage are the funds available from the EU, but governmental funding is also necessary for these funds to be used. If money from the budget is allotted, deficit targets agreed on with the IMF are overshot and a conflict of 'interests' emerges. The IMF could relax the targets for the European funds to be used. This will be a very interesting exercise in the following months," Treichl stated.Banks have a direct interest in the success of such a move, considering many entrepreneurs and public authorities need loans to be able to co-fund the European funds they try to get. It remains to be seen whether the banking lobby in this respect will be as strong as in the case of modifications requested for Ordinance 50 regarding retail loan contracts.

Romania's international foreign currency reserves

Romania's international foreign currency reserves do not necessarily need to grow as they stand at a comfortable level, according to the governor of Romania's Central Bank (BNR), Mugur Isarescu.
He mentioned we have to give up the idea that it is a good thing if the international reserve is growing, NewsIn states.
As to the gold reserves of the neighbor countries, he said the central lender of Bulgaria has a reserve of 39.8 tons, that from Latvia 7.8 tons, that from Lithuania 5.9 tons, that from Poland 103 tons and that from Slovakia 31.7 tons. Romania's gold reserve stands at 103.7 tons.
The governor also talked about the gain from administering the international reserves, which dropped dramatically from 2008 and 2009 and even more in 2010.
The price of gold rose 2.5 times in the past five years.
Romania's foreign currency reserves lowered by 1.13 percent in June from the previous month, to 31.62 billion euros, according to a release issued by the central lender BNR.
Romania's international reserves – foreign currency and gold – eased 0.7 percent at the end of June to 34.99 billion euros, from 35.25 billion euros at the end of May.
The gold reserve maintained at 103.7 tons, but the evolution of international prices increased its value by 3.37 percent to 3.37 billion euros, from 3.26 billion euros in the previous month.