By Susana Lima 

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.

By Nicole Sánchez

Italy succeeded in total, to put in of 3, 816 million euros 2, 816 in zero coupon bonds, indicating that in two next years will be of less interest than in a previous auction. These one billion are in € BTP bonds (variable rate according to inflation) and have an expiration time for the 2019 and 2021.
Investors demanded, in the case of two-year bonds, an interest of 2,352%, in front of 3,012% that the Treasury had to offer in the previous issue last February. In the case of the BTP €i, the Bank of Italy said that no one can speak of a direct comparison with previous auctions.

Saaron Rose

Angela Merkel, German chancellor, said the rescue funds in Europe have no time to lose its functionality. Thus Merkel is confident that the funds could run for several years in parallel.

The German Chancellor said that the 500, 000 million euros of the permanent fund,  and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) would add to the 200, 000 million euros of the temporary fund, the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF).

By Susana Lima

According to the EU statistical office Eurostat, the output of construction sector in Spain registered a decline of 11.5% during January, compared with December of last year. Eleven times higher than the drop 1% in January throughout the European Union.

The building sector only rose in six EU states and fell in nine. Spain shows the third loudest fall on-year after Portugal with 11.9% and Slovenia with 19.7% in the same sector.

By Lara Holmes

Thousands of people have taken part in coordinated protests across Europe in opposition to a controversial anti-piracy agreement.

Significant marches were held in Germany, Poland and the Netherlands against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta).

Around 200 protesters gathered in central London outside the offices of several major rights holders.

By Fernando Álvarez: Ex IMF Economist

In the second half of 2011 a total of 310,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation. This means that the overall quantity of counterfeits withdrawn from circulation in 2011 was 19.3% lower compared with the figures for 2010. At the same time, there was an increase of 4.7% as regards the quantity recovered in the second half of 2011 compared with the previous six months. When compared with the number of genuine euro banknotes in circulation (on average 14.4 Trillion during the second half of 2011), the proportion of counterfeits remains very low.

Nevertheless, the Euro system – i.e. the European Central Bank (ECB) and the 17 national central banks of the euro area – continues to advise the public to remain alert with regard to the banknotes received in cash transactions. Genuine banknotes can be easily recognized using the simple “FEEL-LOOK-TILT” test described on the euro pages of the ECB’s website and the websites of the Euro system national central banks. In case of doubt, however, a suspect banknote should be compared directly with one that is known to be genuine. Anyone who suspects that they may have received a counterfeit should contact either the police or – where national practice allows – the relevant national central bank.