Europe Economics Weekly Debt restructuring fears grow Hopes that a Portuguese bail-out would mark a major turning point in the euro-zone’s sovereign debt crisis took a blow last week as comments from euro-zone officials led to renewed concerns about... 18th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Commercial Property Update Euro-zone industrial rents unlikely to rise until 2012 or later The combination of a high proportion of underutilised stock and early signs that the euro-zone industrial recovery is now starting to lose momentum, suggests that most euro-zone industrial markets are... 15th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Data Response Euro-zone CPI (Final, Mar.) & Trade (Feb.) March’s rise in headline euro-zone CPI inflation, which was down to a pick-up in core inflation, is not as alarming as it may seem. But it will do nothing to ease the ECB’s concerns about building... 15th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Commercial Property Update Have Spanish office rents reached a floor? Preliminary agency data shows that office rental values in Madrid and Barcelona fell further in the first three months of the year. It is tempting to conclude that having dropped by almost a third... 14th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Data Response Euro-zone Ind Prod. (Feb 11) February’s euro-zone industrial production figures provide tentative signs that the recovery in the sector is starting to lose momentum. 13th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Focus Can Spain stay out of the crisis? Worries that the euro-zone debt crisis will enter a more dangerous phase by spreading from the smaller peripheral economies to Spain have recently diminished. But we think that it would be premature... 12th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Data Response German ZEW (Apr.) April’s fall in the headline German ZEW index does little to alter our view that the German economy will continue to grow at a pretty robust pace over the coming months. 12th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Weekly ECB takes the lead, for now Last week’s decision by the ECB to raise interest rates before other major central banks mainly reflected its different attitude and approach to inflation-targeting. But we suspect that there were... 11th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Commercial Property Update What does the ECB rate rise mean for European property? The ECB’s decision to raise interest rates was not a surprise, nor does it materially change the stillloose stance of monetary policy. That said, if nothing else, today’s move will focus investor... 7th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update ECB keeping its options open Having raised interest rates from 1.0% to 1.25% as expected, the ECB kept its options open over the likely size and timing of future interest rate increases. For now, we still think that the Bank will... 7th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Data Response German Industrial Production (Feb.) February’s German industrial production figures confirm that the economy’s impressive expansion has continued in the early months of 2011 and that Germany remains the euro-zone’s best performing... 7th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Portugal succumbs. Now what? Now that Portugal has succumbed to the inevitable, the key question is whether the latest euro-zone bail-out finally draws a line under the peripheral economies’ problems or marks the start of a new... 7th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update What will higher rates do to the euro-zone? We doubt that the probable ECB interest rate hike on Thursday marks the start of an aggressive policy tightening. But if interest rates were to rise in line with market expectations, their impact... 6th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Chart Pack Hawkish ECB adding to the periphery's troubles March’s pick-up in euro-zone CPI inflation from 2.4% to 2.6%, combined with signs that pipeline price pressures may be building, has led markets to become increasingly convinced that April’s likely... 5th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Weekly Inflation worries will ease in time Last week’s major euro-zone data releases will have done nothing to ease the ECB’s fears about inflation. March’s rise in headline CPI inflation will be particularly worrying, given that it may have... 4th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Could Portugal yet escape a bail-out? Despite the surge in Portuguese government bond yields, politicians continue to insist that they will not require a bail-out. But these words can quickly be taken over by events. A quick look at... 31st March 2011 · 1 min read
