Menu

Data through December 2008, released today by Standard & Poor's for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, show that the prices of existing single family homes across the United States continue to set record declines, a trend that prevailed throughout all of 2007 and 2008.

Fitch Ratings says that against a backdrop of declining disposable income and consumer confidence, larger European luxury goods and above-premium alcoholic beverages and cosmetics companies are likely to be cushioned from these effects by balanced capital structures and healthy legacy profit margins and cash flow generation. Conversely, Fitch expects smaller companies, typically characterised by lower product or geographical diversification and more limited financial flexibility, to be more negatively impacted by the current economic downturn.

As the economic crisis continues, some other issues may be put on the back burner as the government focuses on getting the economy back on its feet. One such issue could be environmental conservation, but 46% of Americans say that the issue of environmental conservation is something that is more important to them personally than it was a few years ago while 47% say it is no more or less important. Just 7% of Americans say it is less important to them. Furthermore, most people do not believe the government needs to choose between the economy and the environment and that the government should be making more of an effort to be environmentally conscious.

Predictions that half a million UK homeowners will fall into serious mortgage arrears this year is likely to lead to tens of thousands of homes being repossessed. While this is grim news for those homeowners, bargain hunters could help bring life back into the property market, says Primelocation.com.

In December 2008 compared with November 2008, the euro area (EA15) industrial new orders index fell by 5.2%. In November the index decreased by 5.4%. In the EU27 new orders declined by 6.4% in December 2008, after dropping by 5.1% in November. Excluding ships, railway & aerospace equipment, for which changes tend to be more volatile, industrial new orders fell by 4.7% in the euro area and by 6.4% in the EU27.

Asking prices in prime London areas increased by 1.2% (GBP16,106) in January, the third successive month of rising values, according to Primelocation.com's latest House Price Index, a unique measure of the Prime market based on a sample of over 62,000 properties in London's most prestigious areas.

Fitch Ratings has said in a just published special report, "2009 Hong Kong Commercial Property Market Outlook", that the outlook for 2009 for the territory's office and retail property markets are negative, underpinned by the current global economic downturn and the substantially weakened local market sentiment.

In December 2008 the working day and seasonally adjusted current account of the euro area recorded a deficit of EUR 7.3 billion. In the financial account, combined direct and portfolio investment showed net inflows of EUR 1 billion. In 2008 as a whole, the working day-adjusted deficit on the euro area current account amounted to EUR 63.2 billion (about 0.7% of GDP), compared with a surplus of EUR 36.3 billion in 2007. Combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net inflows of EUR 128 billion in 2008, compared with net inflows of EUR 47 billion in 2007, mainly as a result of lower net purchases of foreign debt instruments by euro area residents.

The Energy Security Leadership Council, a project of Securing America's Future Energy, released a study entitled Economic Impact of the Energy Security Leadership Council's National Strategy for Energy Security. The paper, a long-term macroeconomic analysis of policy proposals put forward by the ESLC last September, finds that the U.S. economy would benefit substantially over the long term from implementation of the ESLC policy package.