News – Business & Economi

The housing market has included nine in the third quarter the prospect of a relapse into recession in the French economy with lower sales and housing starts, according to data released Tuesday by the Ministry of Housing.

More than 26,400 homes were sold in the third quarter, nearly 2,700 more than in the second quarter but 12.9% less than for the corresponding period of 2010.

Of the last four quarters, the number of sales totaled 101,300 or 10.7% less than in the previous four quarters.

A 71,600 homes at the end of the third quarter, the stock of new homes for sale is 14.4% higher than the third quarter of 2010.

Antonio Borges, director of the Europe Department International Monetary Fund (IMF), has resigned with immediate effect, the Fund announced Wednesday.

The IMF notes that the Director General intends to appoint Christine Lagarde Reza Moghadam, Director of the current strategy to succeed Borges, effective Thursday.

Unilever issued a sales increase of 7.8% in the third quarter and expects margins stable or declining for the year 2011, experienced strong sales growth in emerging markets.

The manufacturer of soaps and mayonnaise has raised its prices by nearly 6%, while sales in countries such as India, Indonesia and Brazil have helped to offset difficult markets in Europe and the United States .

However, the group warned that its operating margin at constant perimeter and constant exchange rates would be stable or slightly declining over the year 2011 due to higher commodity prices.

On this basis, the Group reported a turnover up 7.8%, a performance better than the consensus of society, which provided an increase of 6.3%, following growth of 4.3% in the first quarter and 7.1% in the second.

Over 100,000 taxpayers have disclosed their assets in OECD countries for two years. It reported one billion euros in France. The headquarters of the Cayman National Bank in George Town. The Cayman Islands are in the core of tax havens.

Almost 14 billion euros in tax revenues were collected in the last two years in twenty countries through international agreements concluded in the fight against tax evasion, the OECD said on Tuesday. "There's much more in the pipeline", but assured the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) at the opening of its fourth Global Forum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes .

These are, says the OECD, will provide "a substantial contribution to fiscal consolidation without increasing tax rates" in many countries forced to increase the tax burden to deal with the crisis."It is important that everyone contribute their fair share," notes the organization. The OECD states that the measures against tax evasion reported more than one billion euros in France, Germany 1.8 billion to 1.4 billion U.S., 150 million at the Australia and 260 million in Spain and the UK.

Over 100,000 taxpayers have disclosed their assets (including 30,000 in the United States, 1350 in the UK, 4,700 in France and 25,000 in Germany), she says. The Global Forum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes, housed at the OECD brings together 105 countries and territories. This Tuesday and Wednesday to finalize a report on "progress towards fiscal transparency" for the G20 summit to be held in Cannes on November 3 and 4. Other reports are expected on a number of tax havens after the meeting.

The next summit of the euro zone is not enough to permanently resolve the debt crisis, warned Friday German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"There is no single solution, there is no solution 'big bang'," she told the annual conference of the German trade union IG Metall in Karlsruhe.

She added that a discount on the debt of Greece was not a panacea either.

Angela Merkel also reiterated his skepticism about the effectiveness of any "Eurobonds".

"They do not constitute a panacea," she said, holding that "the current situation, they would not help."

The French car market has limited its decline in September thanks to buoyant demand from individuals helped by aggressive marketing offers manufacturers a performance bodes well for the entire year if the economy does not deteriorate more.

The new car registrations fell by 1.4% year on year last month to 167,631 units, according to figures from the Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers (CCFA).

In the first nine months of the year, the market still continues hex in positive territory (+0.2%), but continues to nibble advance acquired in early 2011 with the latest effects of scrappage.In August, it was up 0.4% since January.

"The market is slowly declining, but he resists, particularly at the request of individuals," said a spokesman for the CCFA, reached by telephone."For the full year, we now think it will be better than we anticipated -8/-10% that far, but we are recalculating the forecast."

The spokesman added that the anticipated decline in France in 2011 could be below 8%, but adding that corporate demand was "a great unknown for the predictions," because of questions about current economic conditions.

"BACK TO NORMAL TO CONFIRM"

Bernard Cambier, commercial director of Renault France, told Reuters that also performance in September for optimism for the French market.

"We could have been legitimately concerned about the economic and financial benefits for the consumer, but there is no impact for the moment," he said by telephone."Today, we are in a market -3/-4% and a surprise is not excluded."

At the auto show in Frankfurt last month, the commercial director of Renault Jérôme Stoll had found that the French market in 2011, waited down 4% to 6% would be closer to 4%.

The firm Xerfi, which provides a decrease of 5% of the market in 2011, stressed that the stability of nine months was obtained primarily through "aggressive policies of manufacturers", but the unknowns hanging over the rest of the year .

"The business climate is deteriorating with the excitement of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and cures of austerity ahead in European countries, our major trading partners," writes Philip Gattet in a note."Businesses have an obsession: to preserve their cash and therefore reduce costs, including automobiles."

"The coming months will be more difficult, whether it be late 2011 or early 2012, mainly because of unfavorable comparisons," agrees Flavien Neuvy, Director of the Cetelem of the car. "But the market is very resistant, the return to normality is confirmed."

Renault and Dacia REBOUND

Illustration of this effect after the exceptional standards of public support, importers continue to gain ground.

The scrapping particular had supported the French manufacturers, specialized in small cars. In September, registrations of foreign companies increased by 5.4% against a fall of 6.2% for the hexagonal groups.Nissan (30.8%) and the German BMW (21.2%) and Volkswagen (14.9%) included from their game last month.

French side, Peugeot is the only (-25.3%), while Citroen saw its registrations fall by 9.4%, -18.4% for the PSA. Both brands have experienced group in September of supply problems live, but no explanation for the drop in sales last month was immediately available from the manufacturer.

Renault has for its part a rebound of 8.7% in registrations, sign of the return to normal by the already mentioned group in component shortages of diesel engines that have sealed sales months at a time.The diamond brand saw its registrations increase by 9% and the group's low cost brand, Dacia, rose 6.3%.

"The portfolio of orders is high because we can see now finally delivered," said Bernard Cambier. "And we still have 100,000 cars in its portfolio, two months of delivery."

In utilities, the registration of light vehicles, a barometer of local economic activity, fell 6.3% in September, while those of commercial vehicles, a reflection of trade over longer distances, increased by 25 9%.

European shares opened lower Monday after another failure of the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel in local elections, which could add another obstacle on the way, hard-working, a solution to the crisis of sovereign debt euro area.

The inability of Ministers of the euro area to find a solution to the crisis at a meeting in Poland this weekend, hanging over the European currency and has penalized the Asian stock markets this morning.

Around 9:30, the CAC 40 index fell by 2.15% to 2965.91 points.

1.48% let go London, Frankfurt and Milan 1.83% 1.66%.The European indices, STOXX 50, lost 2.07%.

The bank accused the largest decrease sector in Europe, the Stoxx index lost 2.55%.

In Paris, Societe Generale lost 4.01%, BNP Paribas 2.07%.

Largest drop in the index, falling 4.37% Michelin, Morgan Stanley has degraded the title of overweight to underweight.

ArcelorMittal lost 3.97%.Credit Suisse cut its target price of 49 dollars to 35 dollars.

Safran, who made his first steps in the CAC 40 lost 1.1%.

The performance of the German government bond (Bund) to 10 years, reference the euro area expands by 3 points to 1.83%.

The euro remains under pressure and is trading around 1.3696 dollars, against more than 1.37 on Friday night.

A barrel of U.S. light crude lost $ 1.04 to 86.92, Brent 56 cents to 111.65 dollars.

The weekly jobless claims rose against all odds in the United States during the week to September 10, at 428,000 against 417,000 the previous week, said Thursday the Labor Department.

Economists on average had expected 410,000 jobless.

Registration of the week to September 3 were revised up from an initial estimate of 414,000.

The moving average of four weeks stood at 419,500 against 415,500 (revised) the previous week.

The number of people receiving regular benefits rose to 3.726 million during the week to September 3 (last week for which figures are available) against 3,738,000 the previous week.

Failures and start-ups fell by 3.5% and 21% in the first half in France over the same period last year, Coface said on Monday.

The decrease is due creations, according to the credit insurer, for a lesser interest in the status of entrepreneur.

The number of failures has reached 32,655, a level that is far from the pre-crisis, when the failures did not exceed 30,000 a semester, said Coface.

Only five sectors are increasing the number of failures, including transportation (9%), food (7%) and distribution (5%). Pharmaceutical, energy and agriculture and fisheries recorded in contrast to declines of more than 20%.

The number of jobs threatened by bankruptcy decreases by 7% over the first half of 2010.The failure of a company threatened 3.3 jobs on average in late June against 3.5 in late 2010.

The half saw a decrease of 19.6% in the number of creations, with nearly 320,000 new entities created, including 21% for businesses, which represent 85% of all creations.

European banks fell Friday to their lowest level stock since April 2009, 29 months ago when the financial crisis was still felt nothing from curb investors' concerns about their short-term financing.

The European banking index lost 9.26% on the week, its fourth consecutive weekly decline, and abandons 21.85% since the beginning of the month.

In the context of economic slowdown and debt crisis, analysts and managers question the ability to rebound in the short term European bank stocks despite the collapse of their course. So much so that the value of the index that measures the 32 largest banks in the euro area currently flirting with the level of the single market capitalization of Apple.

"We do not know exactly what is a bank.We do not know the extent of the default rate that they should take in their accounts according to the scale of the crisis, according to the magnitude of the risk of peripheral countries, "said Philippe Delienne, president of Asset Management Beliefs.

Among banking stocks, Italian banks Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo fell Friday by more than 5%.

The British Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds dropped respectively 5.38% and 4.78%.

In Paris, BNP Paribas fell 4.27%, 3.38% Societe Generale and Credit Agricole 1.7%.In contrast, Dexia, which fell by nearly 14% yesterday, ended on a slight rise of 0.13%.

"Markets are concerned because of liquidity problems," said Sebastien Barthelemy, credit analyst at Louis Capital Markets, which is "a lot of elements concomitant raise the specter of inter-bank crisis in 2008."

"The U.S. money market funds are under pressure in the two major asset classes, the T-Bill (U.S. Treasury bond, Ed) and banks in the euro area, they have chosen to reduce (…) their positions in the European paper and particularly French banks, "said Christophe Nijdam for his part, an analyst at AlphaValue.

The appeal Wednesday to ease dollar of the European Central Bank, for the first time since February, had also contributed to frighten the market Thursday, causing the diving banking stocks as Barclays, Dexia or Societe Generale.

"THE CRISIS IS POLITICAL"

In a note, Deutsche Bank believes, however, that concerns about the level of liquidity are exaggerated, but stressed that the risks to bank profits had increased.

Rates on the interbank market also seem to suggest that the financial system does not flu as the main governing Euribor lending between banks fell slightly Friday.

The dollar Libor three-month reference measurement unsecured interbank lending in the euro area, is 0.29%, still far from the 4.8% level it reached after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008 when banks no longer willing to lend to each other.

"As the European crisis is political and that the policies do not go to the rhythm of the markets, there is concern that this crisis lasts several months," said Philippe Delienne, beliefs AM.

"The banks are 'casual victims' (victims of natural, Ed) of all this fear macroeconomic and political uncertainties," said one London-based analyst, who declined to be named.