As expected the European Central Bank decided to raise the interest rate by 0.25% to 1.5%; this rate decision didn’t seem to affect the financial market as the Euro to US dollar continues to moderately fall. What does this decision…
The People Bank of China decided to raise on July 6th the basic interest rate for one year lending by 0.25 percent points to 6.56%; this is the fourth rate raise this year. One of the prime reasons was to…
Following last week’s vote in the Greek parliament in which it approved the package of budget cuts proposed by Prime Minister George Papandreou, the European Union ministers of finance convened over the weekend and approved the aid to Greece. The…
The Euro Area unemployment rate remained unchanged during May 2011 on 9.9%; according to the recent Eurostat report, the rate was still lower than the rate of unemployment during May 2010. It’s estimated that nearly 22.378 million people in…
According to the recent U.S. Manufacturing ISM report regarding the U.S. Manufacturing PMI– an index that estimate the economic activity in the manufacturing sector in the U.S. – inclined during June to 55.3% after it reached on May 53.5%, i.e.…
According to the recent US pending homes sales report there was a rise during May 2011 in home sales. The US pending home sales index inclined by 8.2% during May 2011 compared with the April 2011 index. This index is…
Greek parliament approved today the package of budget cuts proposed by Prime Minister George Papandreou. These budget cuts are estimated at nearly 28 billion euros. This vote was critical for Greece to avoid default on its debt, and was one…
According to the recent consumer confidence survey in the US, the consumer confidence index has declined during June; this index declined during May as well. This survey shows the confidence of American consumers in US businesses; the total index declined…
Is the Greek rescue plan underway? According to recent news, French banks including BNP Paribas told the French government they are willing to be among the financiers to roll over the maturing Greek government bonds, and thus to avert a…
Yesterday, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, gave a speech in which, as expected, he said the Fed will keep the US basic interest rate unchanged between 0 and 0.25%. The decline in the US inflation rate (see…