Europe Commercial Property Focus The outlook for office markets in European financial centres Of the four main financial hubs of Europe, we think it is Paris that will deliver the best total returns for offices. An annual average of around minus 10% over the next two years will be better than... 15th April 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Commercial Property Focus The correction will be deepest in emerging Europe We have cut our commercial property forecasts to reflect the increasingly gloomy outlook for noneuro- zone European economies. Capital values are likely to fall by 40% from peak to trough in most non... 8th April 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Commercial Property Update Falling currencies add to rental value gloom in emerging Europe As well as facing a deep and painful recession, occupiers in emerging Europe have been hit by falling currencies, increasing the burden of rental payments denominated in euros or dollars. While there... 6th April 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update ECB moving towards unconventional policies Although the ECB’s 25bp interest rate cut was smaller than expected, the decision appears to have reflected a desire to maintain the corridor between the official rate and deposit rates rather than a... 2nd April 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Chart Pack Labour market downturn gathering pace The downturn in the euro-zone labour market is gathering pace. Another very sharp rise in unemployment in February took the total increase so far to over 2 million. With 1.6 million of that pick-up... 1st April 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Spanish consumer slump shows no sign of ending February’s dreadful Spanish retail sales figures have dashed any hopes that the recent sharp falls in inflation and mortgage payments would lead household spending to stabilise at the start of the... 31st March 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Commercial Property Focus Euro-zone capital values to fall by at least a third We have cut our euro-zone commercial property forecasts. We now expect capital values in most markets to fall by between 30% and 40% from their peak, with the bulk of those falls being seen by the end... 31st March 2009 · 1 min read
ECB Watch Any hints of asset purchases? With the euro-zone recession still gathering pace, we see the ECB cutting interest rates by another 50 basis points to 1.0% this month. Indeed, it should not be long before rates reach 0.5%. But the... 26th March 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Euro-zone Monetary Indicators Monitor (Mar.) The latest euro-zone money supply figures further support the view that the ECB’s injections of short-term liquidity into the banking sector will not be sufficient on their own to encourage banks to... 26th March 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Norwegian rates close to their trough The Norges Bank’s decision to cut interest rates by a further 50 basis shows that it remains committed to preventing a major economic downturn. But with the economy set to experience a much milder... 25th March 2009 · 1 min read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Norwegian rates close to their trough The Norges Bank’s decision to cut interest rates by a further 50 basis shows that it remains committedto preventing a major economic downturn. But with the economy set to experience a much... 25th March 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Focus Will the ECB ever catch up? The Federal Reserve’s decision to embark on an even bolder program of quantitative easing has left the ECB apparently lagging still further behind other central banks in tackling the economic crisis... 19th March 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Italian industrial downturn has much further to run At first sight, the latest industrial production figures from Italy suggest that the sector may be weathering the global economic downturn rather better than some of the other major euro-zone... 18th March 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Swiss National Bank joins the unconventional club The SNB’s decision to cut interest rates to 0.25%, provide more liquidity to the banking sector, intervene in currency markets and purchase bonds from the private sector, pushes it towards the top of... 12th March 2009 · 1 min read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Swiss National Bank joins the unconventional club The SNB’s decision to cut interest rates to 0.25%, provide more liquidity to the banking sector, intervene in currency markets and purchase bonds from the private sector, pushes it towards the top of... 12th March 2009 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update ECB moving towards unconventional policy Following the expected 50bp interest rate cut to 1.5%, the ECB made some broadly encouraging comments about further policy support to come. No plan is in place for quantitative easing, but the Bank... 5th March 2009 · 1 min read
