Bulging budget deficit a biggest problem for UK

Jun 08, 2015 10:09 am UTC| Commentary

The coalition government oversaw the halving of the budget deficit to 5% of GDP in its five-year term, but it remains much wider - and debt much higher - than it intended back in 2010. In this report, the second of a...

Gold falls to 2.5-month low after robust US labour market data

Jun 08, 2015 09:37 am UTC| Commentary

The gold price temporarily dipped to a 2½-month low of $1,163 per troy ounce on Friday and is only trading around $10 higher as the new week of trading gets underway. Fridays weakness was no doubt due to the robust...

OPEC leaves production target unchanged at 30 million barrels per day

Jun 08, 2015 09:29 am UTC| Commentary

Brent ultimately closed trading on Friday up 2% at a good $63 per barrel following some very volatile trading. As expected, OPEC left its production target unchanged at 30 million barrels per day. However, because some...

Germany economy maintains Q1 pace

Jun 08, 2015 07:35 am UTC| Commentary

Germany industrial production rose in April at a slightly stronger pace than consensus had expected, at 0.9%. This means that production was 0.7% higher than the average for the first quarter, notes Commerzbank. Exports...

Another sharp drop in China's imports, reflecting weak demand

Jun 08, 2015 07:31 am UTC| Commentary

Mays trade numbers released this morning showed a sharp drop in Chinas imports, reflecting weak domestic demand. Imports slumped 17.6% y/y from -16.2% previously and more pertinently, it contracted by double-digits for the...

Japan’s balance of payments and GDP revision

Jun 08, 2015 07:17 am UTC| Commentary

The Japanese current account surplus in April (1.27 trillion yen on a seasonally adjusted basis) did not meet the expectations of the majority of analysts. The extremely high March result seems a one-off rather than...

US labor market report and CFTC data

Jun 08, 2015 07:03 am UTC| Commentary

Any remaining concerns about the state of the US economy which the surprisingly bad US data might have caused over the past few weeks seem to have been overcome all of a sudden. The surprisingly high May nonfarm-payrolls...