Sat05192012

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Germany save the Eurozone out of recession

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Sudden increase surprises analysts
 
By Alfonso García
 
The statistics office Eurostat reported that an unexpected growth in Germany, arranged for the Eurozone countries to dodge the dreaded recession to stop in the first quarter of 2012.
 
As a result of an increase in exports and domestic consumption, gross domestic product (GDP) in Germany, grew more than expected during the first three months of 2012, by 0.5%. Mads Koefoed, Saco Bank economist said: Germany is leading the block, but this does not mean we will have a strong rebound. The austerity is not going and southern European economies are really having a bad time. We expect stagnation to a very slight growth in the coming year.
 
Analysts were surprised by this growth since they just had forecast a 0.2% after the German economy contracted 0.2% in the last quarter of 2011.
 
The weakness of the other economies in the Eurozone was eventually offset by the Germanic figures and resulted in zero growth in relation to the last three months of last year.
 
The data obtained by the Eurozone beat expectations of experts which put an economic decline of 0.2%. The economy of the 17 countries of the euro declined 0.3% in the last three months of 2011, for the first time in two years.
 

Second quarter of zero growth in France

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By Ruben Orozco
 
According to the Central Bank of France, the country will show no growth during the second quarter of 2012.
 
The forecast suggests that the GDP of the second largest economy in the eurozone will remain constant over the April to June period in relation to the previous quarter.
 
BdF projections highlight the immobilization that has remained from the first three months of this year.
 
Based on the 100 level that marks the long-term average, the indicator of the industry remained at 95 points in April. The indicator for business revealed 93 points, a performance even more mediocre. Since late 2009, both indicators didn’t show such bad levels.
 
 
According to the newly elected president, François Hollande, forecasts a GDP growth in their country of 0.7% according to the proposal of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.
 
The growth figures recorded in 2011 did not exceed 2% and the amounts for this year do not exceed the last year’s numbers.
 

Unemployment reaches its highest record in Italy

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By Leonel Reynoso
 
The Italian National Statistics Institute (Istat) announced today that the unemployment rate stood at 9.8% in March of this year, the highest number recorded since January 2004.
 
According to Istat, the amount represents an increase of 0.2 points in correspondence to February of this year and 1.7 points in contrast to March 2011.
 
The youth unemployment rate which includes workers between 15 and 24 years old are positioned at 35.9% in March, 2 percentage points higher than in February and 7.7 over the same month last year.
 
The institution revealed that 22.9 million people were unemployed during March in Italy, which means 0.2% less than last month and compared to the same period of 2011, the number decreased by 0.4%.
 
The male unemployment rate held at 9.0% in November 2011, 0.3 points more than in February. The female unemployment number stood at 11.0%, which means 0.1 points more than last month.
 

UK falls into the second recession

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By Sara Luna

 
Since the financial crisis experienced at the beginning of 2012, the United Kingdom had not been low in the scale of production now. The recession is present and the pressure exerted on the coalition government of Prime Minister David Cameron is clear.
 
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, gross domestic product fell 0.2% in the first quarter of 2012, which surprised the world and economic analysts who expected a growth of 0.1% is expected modest growth in the service sector and only a drop in industrial production.
 
The recession figures have been listed as a blow to the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in the UK, which has declined in popularity in the statistics, according to opinion polls, this occurred since the submission of an annual budget in last march, the which was not accepted. This government is also under pressure by revelations about his close relationship with the media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
 
Graeme Leach, chief economist at the Institute of Directors said that obviously was not good news, but called not being too alarmist.
 

Norway will assist Cuba in case of extreme events

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By Susana Lima 

Herminia Serrano, an Environment Agency (WADA) expert said that Norway will incur into cooperation actions to reduce risk in extreme weather events in Cuba. 
 
The specialist added: Strategy, under development and analysis, includes a package of national initiatives with implications for the Caribbean, based on the political will of the island to cooperate with other nations, and in accordance with rules and regulations from both countries. 
 
 
The strategy consists of a project aimed at the establishment of a training and learning center to facilitate the study of adaptation to climate change and three research projects, mainly focusing on local and regional applications. 
 
During a presentation of results of the special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Serrano said that the two parts of the strategy will take into account several accumulated scientific findings. 
 
The people participating in the Event will be employers, government representatives, academics from Cuba and the Caribbean and NGOs in order to educate themselves about good risk management for good decision making. 
 
Approved in November 2011 and prepared by about 200 experts from 62 nations, the report warns that climate change will cause more intense weather disasters and greater economic cost.
 

Unresolved debt problems left Spain and France unstable

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By Cristina Garcia
 
According to official data from the Monthly Survey of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, 63% of investors expect a negative surprise from Spain, in contrast to 50% from the previous survey and 56% expect bad financial news from France in contrast with the percentage in August last year of 52%.
 
Gary Baker, head of European Equity strategies to BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research explained: The survey highlights that while the main concern of investors in the U.S. is the Spanish economy; the result of the French elections and uncertainty that surrounds them has a high importance when making decisions.

Crisis between Argentina and Spain for YPF is back

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By Renato Cuevas

After intervention and expropriation announcement by Argentina, the Mexican Stock Exchange (MSE) suspended trading of the securities of the oil company YPF.

The Stock Exchange said in a press release after the cessation of trading in New York and Buenos Aires, the Mexican stock market has decided to suspend the sale of securities YPF, which is traded on the International Quotation System (SIC-Capital ) of this market.

Water commercialization causes drought in England

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By Susana Lima

The severe drought plaguing England has led some authorities to develop plans to trade water among various regions, to supply more than 100,000 homes affected by the lack of rain.

Anglian Water Company will buy 30 million liters of water a day to Severn Trent. In short, the idea is to pump underground water from the city of Birmingham into the Tame River which links to the city of Trent. Then it will go to come up Gainsboroug and Lincs where will be collected and distributed by the Anglian Water company.

IMF Director announces that Greece might still be at risk

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By Susana Lima

Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund Managing Director, does not exclude the possibility that Greece may approach back to bankrupcy and has to abandon the euro and the European Union.

Lagarde warned: There is still medicine to take and that's what happens in most southern states of the eurozone, most of all Ireland. The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schauble, said the Greek press takes Germany as "scapegoat".

Schauble said the antipathy generated by German politicians between many Greeks is a common reaction in a difficult situation after Greece went through cuts and reforms in a hurry for the huge debt that belongs largely to Germans sureties.

It's always like that, when you have countries and people who have been living beyond their means and now have to implement austerity, cutbacks and reforms in its labor market, in this situation they tend to blame others, look for scapegoats, but at the same time they know their prosperity is thanks to Europe, said Schauble.

As a result of the nail tearing through of this small European economy, which has a public debt of 168% of its gross domestic product (GDP), Athens has had to impose tough austerity measures like cutting pensions, lower wages, increased tariffs and dismissal of 150,000 public employees as a requirement of the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.

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