Precious Metals Quotes

Gold Price  3 months    Futures     US$ 1,243.90

Silver Price 3 months    Futures     US$     19.32
                                                         

BOJ upgrades economic conditions of 9 regions

The Bank of Japan upgraded its economic assessments for eight of the country's nine regions in a quarterly report released Thursday, reflecting improvements in business and consumer sentiment thanks to the yen's weakening and rises in stock prices.

It was the first time in three years and nine months that the Bank of Japan has revised up its economic assessments for at least eight regions for two straight quarters. In its previous report, the central bank upgraded its assessments for all nine regions.The latest report said that the economy "has been picking up" in the Hokkaido, Hokuriku, Kanto-Koshinetsu, Tokai and Kyushu-Okinawa regions, "has been picking up moderately" in the Kinki region, "has been picking up moderately as a whole" in the Chugoku region and "has begun to pick up" in the Shikoku region.  

Source: NewsonJapan

China's properties prices under control

Many are worried that high land prices may translate into higher property prices. Analysts say high land prices so far only occur in big cities, and the government’s curbing policies on land have also helped to prevent the prices from going higher.

Property developers bought land in China’s largest cities at record prices in June. That enthusiasm is spreading to second tier cities too. Experts say this shows property companies are more confident this year.

"We’re seeing a rebound in enthusiasm from developers in buying up land since the fourth quarter of last year. Competition has also heated up in the market. So new land is being snatched up at a quick pace." Wang Juelin, Researcher OF Min. of Housing & Urban-rural Dev't said.

Despite this, analysts say land prices are still reasonable overall, as high prices are mostly seen the country’s top tier cities.

"Once land prices exceed the cap required by the government, developers compete for building affordable housing. This prevents excessively high prices from occurring." Zhang Dawei, Gen. Manager of Marketing Dept. of Centaline Property said.

There is another reason why prices are under control. The government launched a curbing policy in 2010 to place a cap on land auctions. Once the ceiling is reached, the developer who’s willing to build more AFFORDABLE housing will get the land.

Unemployment rate on the Euro Zone

According to  Eurostat,  the rate of unemployed still progressed,in May .The rate of unemployment hits 12.2% of the working population of the euro area, against 12.1% a month earlier date. In the twenty-seven EU as twenty-eight counting Croatia, the rate shows 11%. Spain (26.9%), Italy (12.2%) and in Greece (26.8%) this "economic cancer" continues to grow.  France, doesn't escape to this problem, with an unemployment rate 10.8% against 10.9% a month earlier date. The improvement hopes don't change anything. Even if it happen, the improvement of the economy will not result in lower unemployment figures "for a year, at least," calculates Eric Heyer,of the French Observatory . In fact, employment is a variable that adjusts more slowly than others.

Source: Le Monde

EU Financial Transaction Tax

 EU commissioner for customs and taxation Algirdas Semeta on Wednesday welcomed the European Parliament (EP) vote on the financial transaction tax (FTT).

"I warmly welcome the Parliament's vote in favour of the FTT under enhanced cooperation, which 11 member states have requested," Semeta said in a statement following the EP's vote in favour of the FTT proposal.

"Today, we've had a clear signal that popular and political support for the FTT is still strong," he said, adding that the FTT, also know as the "Tobin tax," can contribute to "fair taxation, a cohesive single market and a more responsible banking sector."

The commissioner urged all the 11 member states to press ahead in reaching quick agreement,  while also protecting the spirit and purpose of this tax."

He promised that the European Commission will continue to support negotiations in every way possible, to facilitate a swift and ambitious compromise. 

Source: Xinhua

China's increasing Chain Stores

The number of shopping centers in China is likely to reach 4,000 by 2015, an official with the China Chain Store & Franchise Association (CCSFA) said Thursday.

Data from the association show that there were 3,000 shopping centers across the country in 2012, with a gross floor area of 200 million square meters.

Besides large shopping centers, convenience stores also reported fast expansion last year. The country's 20 major convenience store chains registered 28-percent sales growth, and the number of convenience stores increased 14 percent nationwide in 2012.

Consumption demand has dropped on the back of a decelerating economy and intensifying competition, causing oversupply in some local markets, said Guo Geping, chairwoman of the CCSFA, adding that the competitive edge of convenience stores will be sharpened with the development of instant foods and logistics services for online shopping.

She said the country's department stores were hit by rising costs and a bustling online retailing sector, so the most urgent task is transforming business models to reduce costs and improve customer experience.

Source: Xinhua

Haruhiko Kuroda: Optimistic on Abenomics

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda claimed some success for the central bank's aggressive monetary stimulus on Thursday, saying that the economy is on track to a steady recovery with signs inflation expectations are picking up.

Speaking at a quarterly meeting of the BOJ's regional branch managers, Kuroda reiterated the central bank's commitment to maintain its ultra-easy monetary policy until its 2 percent inflation target is achieved in a stable manner.

Japan's economy is steadily heading towards a recovery since we adopted our qualitative and quantitative monetary easing in April," Kuroda said.

"We're seeing the effect of our policies, such as indicators suggesting an increase in inflation expectations."

In a quarterly report issued after the branch managers' meeting, the BOJ revised up its assessment for eight of Japan's nine regions, a sign the positive effects of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reflationary policies are broadening. It was the first time in nearly four years the central bank revised up its assessment for eight or more regions for two straight quarters.

Source: Reuters

Brazil Crisis.

Brazil Latin America's biggest country has had massive protests last week.

Brazilians are railing against poor public schools, hospitals and transport. They are protesting soaring prices, crime and corruption. They are lambasting a political class so self-satisfied that it failed to see, much less address, the mounting dissatisfaction that led to the protests.

Combined, the concerns reflect growing unease among Brazil's nearly 200 million people that the country's long-promised leap into the developed world has fallen short once again.

The demonstrations, sparked by protests against a rise in public transport fares, at first drew mostly educated youth from Brazil's traditional middle class, a minority that historically has had more in common with a wealthy elite than the nearly 100 million Brazilians who until recently formed the ranks of the poor.

The demonstrations took off, though, when Brazil's "new" middle class joined the fray. "This is the discontent of people for whom having enough rice and beans on the table no longer comes as a surprise

Booming commodity exports, a consumer binge and ambitious social welfare programs together fueled a decade of steady economic growth that lifted 35 million Brazilians from poverty. But now, as the economy cools, many among the new middle class say their much-vaunted ascent leaves a lot to be desired. 

The notion of middle class in Brazil broadly includes include almost anyone able to pay rent, put food on the table and perhaps pay a monthly installment on the refrigerator, microwave or television that Brazil's government often touts as a sign of their emergence. The so-called "Classe C," the bottom rung of Brazil's , about $790 a month, and, unlike the much-smaller upper middle class, relies largely on public transportation, health services and schools.

Those who can't afford private health insurance - and most Brazilians can't - are at the mercy of public hospitals that often lack sutures, spare beds and, increasingly, doctors, some of whom are so disgusted with the public health system that they limit their work to private providers. 

After average yearly economic growth of more than four percent during Lula's two terms, average growth through the end of Rousseff's term isn't expected to exceed much more than two percent. Inflation, a longtime concern, has crept back up to an annual pace of 6.5 percent.

 It is worth to note that Lula's two terms where in the period of a super boom in the price of commodities,high foreing direct investment to emerging markets, and the start of the discovery

of important oil reserve in deepwater oil fields in the coast of Brazil.

Brazil's boom is also exhausted. Demand for raw materials from China has slowed.

Brazilian consumers, meanwhile, are more burdened by debt than at any time since the central bank began measuring household credit. Growing defaults last year led banks to cut back on lending.

The slowdown muddles the message for a government accustomed to telling its citizens - indeed, the entire world - that Brazil has finally made it.

As recently as April, Rousseff was pledging that per capita income would double by 2022 - never mind that economists say that would require average annual growth of at least 6 percent until then. Two important  events in Brazil, the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, are now having increased criticism because of the more than $25 billion needed to host them.

Greece on tightrope once again?

  Greece's Goverment difficulty to deliver results towards public reform is puting this nation in a tightrope again in front the EU and IMF, it is not meeting the conditions attached to its bailout in order to receive their next tranche of aid.

Athens, which has about 2.2 billion euros of bonds to redeem in August, needs the talks to conclude successfully.

Athens is scrambling to bridge differences with troika inspectors and wrap up the review by the end of this week, a Greek coalition official who took part in the talks told Reuters on Tuesday.

"Negotiations must be concluded by Saturday or Sunday at the latest in order to have a (troika) staff agreement that will be discussed at a Eurogroup meeting on Monday," said the official who declined to be named.

The two sides had yet to agree on how to plug a fiscal gap and Athens has missed a June deadline to place 12,500 state workers into a "mobility scheme", under which they are transferred or dismissed within a year.

Source: Reuters

China boosting loans for agricultural industralization

China has budgeted  2.58 billion yuan (417.31 million U.S. dollars) subsidy to boost the amount of loans for the agricultural industrialization, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday.

The money is designed to cut lending interest rates for agricultural industrialization projects so as to boost farm produce supply and farmers' income.

Thirty provinces, autonomous regions and provincial-level municipalities will benefit from the money, together with Dalian, Ningbo and Qingdao cities.

China and U.S. will have Economic Summit

China and the United States will hold their fifth  Strategic and Economic Dialogue  on July 10 and 11 in Washington, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Thursday.

The dialogue will be co-chaired by Vice Premier Wang Yang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi, who will be acting as special representatives of President Xi Jinping, as well as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. 

Both sides will discuss the implementation of agreements made during a recent summit held by the presidents of both countries, and talk about boosting coordination and cooperation on bilateral issues and major international and regional affairs, Qin said.
Source: Xinhua