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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (6533)	1/30/2004 1:50:38 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Thanks Haim 1) Did this come out after europe markets closed? 2)Also have a question on what I bolded below: Is that guy from mars or does he really think that? How can this rosy scenario take place with so little demand and so much unemployment? 3)It seems clear a rate cut is called for IMO. Take out medical and they have disinflation do they not? German December Retail Sales Unexpectedly Decline quote.bloomberg.com German retail sales unexpectedly fell for a second month in December, as concerns over health-care, pensions and employment overshadowed the prospect of income-tax reductions in Europe's biggest economy. Sales slipped 2.3 percent from November, when they fell a revised 3.4 percent, the Federal Statistics Office said in Wiesbaden. Economists had expected an increase of 0.5 percent, the median of 16 forecasts showed in a Bloomberg News survey. Sales declined 2.5 percent from the year-earlier period. The figures are ``absolutely dreadful, defying expectations of an improvement after a poor November,'' said Robert Lind, an economist at ABN Amro in London. ``Rising unemployment and disappointment over tax cuts will depress consumer spending in 2004.'' About one in 10 people is out of work in Germany, compared with a U.S. jobless rate of 5.7 percent. The Federal Labor Agency reports January unemployment figures next week. In France, unemployment rose in December for the first month in three, suggesting companies want to see signs of faster economic growth before taking on extra staff. The European Central Bank has said the euro's appreciation, while slowing export growth, should help lower inflation and boost consumer spending this year. The European Commission forecasts euro region growth will accelerate to 1.8 percent this year from 0.4 percent in 2003. ``We expect this year and next year that the recovery will be driven by domestic demand,'' ECB Chief Economist Otmar Issing said last week. ``The euro's appreciation will contribute to a further damping of price developments,'' which will boost disposable income, he said. German inflation accelerated to 1.2 percent in January, from 1.1 percent in December, after Health and Social Affairs Minister Ulla Schmidt introduced quarterly fees for doctor visits and raised treatment costs that patients have to pay out of their own pockets. Without that effect, the inflation rate would have dropped to 0.6 percent