In its first bond sale since the bail-out in May, Greece was able to raise 1.25bn euros (£1.05bn; $1.58bn) in new funds. The offer was oversubscribed, with bids totalling 3.6bn euros. The terms of the bonds require Greece to repay the loans in three months, at a return rate of 4.65%.
It is worth noting however, that payments are on condition that Greece slashes public spending and boosts tax revenue.
Source: BBC News
The European Central Bank said today that it is making up to 131.9 billion euros ($161.5 billion) in loans available to European banks for the next three months. This is considerably less than expected and suggests that banks are in better financial shape than thought originally.
Banks tomorrow need to repay 442 billion euros in 12-month funds, the biggest amount ever awarded by the ECB and a key plank in its efforts to fight the financial crisis last year. Demand for the three-month cash today was a litmus test for the health of Europe’s banking system, economists said.
Demand was “surprisingly low and certainly a lot less than markets expected,” said Nick Kounis, chief European economist at Fortis Bank NV in Amsterdam. “It suggests that while there are certainly stresses in the system in some regions, it’s not as bad across the board as many people thought.”
Source: Bloomberg
The number of people unemployed in the UK rose by 53,000 to 2.51 million during the three months to March, official figures have shown.
The unemployment total is now at its highest level since December 1994.
However, the total number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell in April by 27,100 to 1.52 million – a sharper fall than expected.
The rate of unemployment remained at 8%, the Office for National Statistics said.
BBC News
UK unemployment touched a 15-year high in February, with 2.5 million unemployed. The ranks of the unemployed increased by more than 43,000 in the the three months ending in February. Despite the increase in unemployed, the number of people claiming benefits fell by nearly 33,000, but according to analysts, this is due to individuals enrolled in new training programs.
“With private sector job creation still a long way off, the risk is that, while these students do not currently boost measured unemployment, trouble is just being stored up for further down the line,” noted Colin Ellis, European economist at Daiwa Capital Markets.
Source: BBC News
For the last three months of 2009, the economy for the eurozone registered no growth at all over the previous quarter. Year-over-year, the combined economies of the countries using the Euro currency, fell 2.2 percent compared to earlier predictions of a 2.1 percent decline.
“Economic activity gathered steam in most of the major OECD economies in the last quarter of 2009, with the notable exception of the euro area,” reported the chief economist of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Pier Carlo Padoan.
Source: BBC News
Taiwan recorded an annualized growth rate of 18 percent for the final three months of 2009. The level of growth was much greater than expected and can be attributed to a massive increase in demand in China for Taiwan’s high-tech products.
China’s economy also grew in the fourth quarter, expanding at an annualized rate of 10.9 percent and is on target to surpass Japan as the world’s second largest economy.
Source: BBC News
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