Εκτινάχθηκε η βιομηχανική παραγωγή στην Τουρκία

Εκτινάχθηκε η βιομηχανική παραγωγή στην Τουρκία

Κωνσταντινούπολη (Dow Jones) – Η βιομηχανική παραγωγή της Τουρκίας, ο βασικός δείκτης οικονομικής παραγωγής, υπερέβη τις προσδοκίες το Σεπτέμβριο, και διαμορφώθηκε στο υψηλότερο επίπεδο από το Φεβρουάριο, υπογραμμίζοντας το συνεχιζόμενο momentum της ταχύτατα αναπτυσσόμενης οικονομίας της Τουρκίας.

Τα στοιχεία από το εθνικό ινστιτούτο στατιστικής (TUIK) εμφανίζουν ότι η βιομηχανική παραγωγή αυξήθηκε 6,9% σε μηνιαία βάση το Σεπτέμβριο και 12% σε σχέση με το προηγούμενο έτος. Το ποσοστό είναι διπλάσιο από το 6% που προέβλεπαν αναλυτές που συμμετείχαν σε δημοσκόπηση του Dow Jones Newswires.

Η βιομηχανική παραγωγή του Σεπτεμβρίου ήταν επίσης πολύ υψηλότερη από το 3,8% που είχε καταγραφεί τον Αύγουστο.

Σύμφωνα με τα στοιχεία, η παραγωγή διευρύνθηκε ραγδαία. Η άνοδος 12,8% στον μεταποιητικό κλάδο, παρείχε την μεγαλύτερη συνεισφορά στην ανάπτυξη της βιομηχανικής παραγωγής, ενώ η άνοδος 9,9% στην παραγωγή ηλεκτρικής ενέργειας και στη διανομή και η αύξηση της παραγωγής εξόρυξης κατά 2,2%, επίσης ενίσχυσαν τα τελικά στοιχεία.




source: capital.gr

U.S. Retail, Manufacturing Likely Rose in October

U.S. Retail, Manufacturing Likely Rose in October

Retail sales probably rose in October and U.S. manufacturing accelerated, helping give the world’s biggest economy a boost entering the final months of 2011, economists said before reports this week.

The 0.3 percent rise in purchases would follow a 1.1 percent gain that was the most in seven months, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey ahead of Commerce Department figures on Nov. 15. Industrial production climbed 0.4 percent, twice as much as in September, according to the survey median. The cost of living was little changed and home construction cooled, other data may show.

Unemployment at 9 percent and limited wage growth help explain why retailers like Macy’s Inc. (M) and Kohl’s Corp. (KSS) plan to use more discounts to lure consumers this holiday shopping season. At the same time, equipment purchases and record exports are propelling manufacturing and sustaining a recovery that’s yet to extend to the housing market.

“There’s positive momentum in demand, which suggests retailers should see a decent Christmas,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida. “The economy is continuing to expand though it’s not firing on all cylinders.”

Retail sales may reflect improved demand for cars as Americans returned to showrooms. Auto purchases ran at a 13.2 million annual rate in October, the highest since February and up from a 13.04 million pace in September, according to data from Ward’s Information Products.

New-Vehicle Demand
“Consumers are just saying it’s time to get a new vehicle,” Ken Czubay, Ford Motor Co. (F)’s U.S. sales chief, said on a Nov. 1 conference call. “We’re seeing that more and more everyday from our dealers.”

Sales excluding automobiles climbed 0.2 percent in October after a 0.6 percent jump, according to the median forecast in the Bloomberg survey.

Even with the projected slower pace in retail sales, consumer spending in the current quarter is tracking at a 2.5 percent annual rate after a 2.4 percent pace in the third quarter, according to economists at Credit Suisse in New York.

Retailers are crafting incentives to lure more shoppers during the November-December holiday period. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based Kohl’s, the fourth-largest U.S. department-store company, said it has stepped up marketing and promotions.

‘Heavy Promotions’
Macy’s, the second-biggest U.S. department-store chain, is seeing “the lower-income customer is struggling more than the middle- or upper-end customer,” according to Chief Financial Officer Karen Hoguet. The Cincinnati-based retailer has planned “heavy promotions” for the holiday season.

“We feel confident that the momentum we have heading into the fourth quarter, combined with our holiday strategies, bode well for that quarter,” Hoguet said on a conference call on Nov. 9. “We’ll have a spectacular Christmas.”

The Standard & Poor’s Supercomposite Retailing Index has gained 7.7 percent this year through Nov. 11, while the broader S&P 500 Index climbed 0.5 percent during the same period.

Manufacturing remains a pillar of the recovery, a Federal Reserve report may show on Nov. 16. Output at factories, mines and utilities may have increased in October by the most in three months.

The pickup at factories extended into November, regional Fed reports may show. The Philadelphia-area manufacturing index, due Nov. 17, rose to the highest level since April, according to the median projection in a Bloomberg survey. The so-called Empire manufacturing gauge for the New York region, to be released Nov. 15, may have also improved.

Distressed Housing
The economy is still without support from a housing market restrained by the overhang of distressed properties, which limits prices and discourages building. Starts fell 7.9 percent in October to a 606,000 annual rate, from a 658,000 pace that was the fastest since April 2010, according to the Bloomberg survey median.

A stronger labor market is needed to speed up growth in the third year of the recovery and to cushion the U.S. from risks related to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. Payrolls climbed by 80,000 workers in October, the fewest since June. While the jobless rate fell to 9 percent from 9.1 percent, it has been stuck near 9 percent or higher for more than two years.

The Fed is “focusing intently on supporting job creation,” Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said on Nov. 10 in El Paso, Texas, describing unemployment as “painfully high.” While the economy is “far from where we want it to be,” he said, inflation may stay under control for the “foreseeable future.”

The consumer-price index, the broadest of the monthly price gauges, was unchanged in October from a month earlier, according to the Bloomberg survey median ahead of Labor Department figures due Nov. 16.

Bloomberg Survey

============================================================
Release Period Prior Median
Indicator Date Value Forecast
============================================================
PPI MOM% 11/15 Oct. 0.8% -0.1%
Core PPI MOM% 11/15 Oct. 0.2% 0.1%
Retail Sales MOM% 11/15 Oct. 1.1% 0.3%
Retail ex-autos MOM% 11/15 Oct. 0.6% 0.2%
Empire Manu. Index 11/15 Nov. -8.5 -2.2
Business Inv. MOM% 11/15 Sept. 0.5% 0.1%
CPI MOM% 11/16 Oct. 0.3% 0.0%
Core CPI MOM% 11/16 Oct. 0.1% 0.1%
Ind. Prod. MOM% 11/16 Oct. 0.2% 0.4%
Housing Starts ,000’s 11/17 Oct. 658 606
Housing Starts MOM% 11/17 Oct. 15.0% -7.9%
Philly Fed Index 11/17 Nov. 8.7 9.0
============================================================

source: bloomberg.com

Berlusconi steps down

ROME — Marking the end of a tumultuous week and of an era in Italian politics, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned Saturday evening after Parliament approved austerity measures sought by the European Union.

The lower house passed the measures on Saturday by a vote of 380 to 26, a day after they were approved by the Senate, trying to keep a step ahead of market pressures that sent borrowing rates on Italian bonds skyrocketing last week to levels that have required other euro zone countries to seek bailouts.

The vote, and Mr. Berlusconi’s resignation, come amid the biggest crisis facing the European Union in decades, in which the power of financial markets has upended traditional democratic processes.

Pressured by European leaders struggling to shore up the euro against speculative attacks, Prime Minister George A. Papandreou of Greece resigned last week to make way for a technocrat-led unity government. Mr. Berlusconi followed suit, a rare about-face for a leader known for his perseverance and his refusal to bow to critics.

“This is the most dramatic moment of our recent history,” Ferruccio de Bortoli, the editor of the Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera, said earlier on national television.

The streets of Rome pulsed with a sense of historic change. Many cheered Mr. Berlusconi’s exit. Outside the Palazzo del Quirinale, the presidential palace, a choir and orchestra performed Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus.

President Giorgio Napolitano, who as head of state will oversee the transition, was expected to begin consultations with party leaders to nominate a prime minister immediately after Mr. Berlusconi’s resignation.

The front-runner to guide a new government appears to be Mario Monti, 68, a former European commissioner and a well-respected economist with close ties to European Union officials. On Wednesday, Mr. Napolitano named Mr. Monti a senator for life, an unexpected move seen as a prelude to receiving the mandate to form a government.

In a sign of intense deal-making ahead of a delicate political transition, Mr. Monti met with Mr. Berlusconi and two of his close advisers on Saturday at the prime minister’s office.

Earlier, Mr. Monti met with Mario Draghi, the recently installed president of the European Central Bank, reinforcing the notion that financial and European institutions strongly support the appointment of the respected economist in a moment of economic and political turbulence.

The mandate of the next government will be to push through measures to help reduce Italy’s $2.6 trillion public debt and increase growth to keep the country competitive.

The austerity measures approved by Parliament include selling state assets and increasing the retirement age to 67 from 65 by 2026. They would decrease the power of professional guilds, privatize municipal services and offer tax breaks to companies that hire young workers.

Italy’s political parties were fighting to maintain their positions in a new government and to ensure their futures would not be doomed by passing the unpopular measures demanded of tough economic times.

The main obstacle to Mr. Monti’s government could come from Mr. Berlusconi’s increasingly divided center-right coalition. Many members would rather go to early elections than have a technocrat backed by the European Union foisted on them.

“I don’t believe the markets should decide governments,” the minister of infrastructure and transportation, Altero Matteoli, said Friday in an interview on Sky Tg24.

The clash over Mr. Monti raised concerns across the political spectrum about the growing influence of financial markets in democracies. In Italy and elsewhere, a dysfunctional political class has been “impotent” in the face of market dynamics and their impact on people’s lives, the commentator Luigi La Spina wrote Saturday in the Turin daily newspaper La Stampa.

But the main opposition party and other lawmakers, fearing that elections would lead to an unsustainable period of market turmoil, support a transitional government.

The prospects of a Monti government have revealed the “very eccentric” nature of Italian politics, said Norma Rangeri, editor in chief of the left-wing daily newspaper Il Manifesto. Mr. Monti, she said, is a liberal conservative whose nomination is being blocked by the center-right, while the center-left, which supports him, “should be looking for the opposite of what Monti represents.”

“What is opening is the most uncertain scenario that we can imagine,” she said.

Dozens of television cameras and bystanders gathered in front of Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister’s office, on Saturday, awaiting Mr. Berlusconi’s resignation, and the beginning of whatever comes next.

Fulvia Roscini, 47, a nurse, was there with her 8-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. “We came here because I wanted my kids to see this,” she said, “to see that another country is possible and is already here.”

source: nytimes.com