Category: Monthly Update

There is lot of chaos and misconception about Obama’s new credit card debt relief program. Let us, however, try to understand what it is, and how it could help us. As promised by our President, Obama has eventually introduced the new credit card debt relief program to get people out of financial mess and reduce their debt considerably. Now this program cannot be considered to be the best debt reduction plan, nor can this is the best refuge for people under debt. However, we can definitely use this program to get our debts reduced up to 50-60% or even 70% in some cases. But how can this be possible? Why would creditors agree to reduce their profit? The answer may seem to be quite tricky, but try to grasp it. When Barack Obama was selected to be our President in 2009, he had promised to get this country out of financial mess. By country, he was not pointing only toward big companies,  [...]

Markets fell after reports revealed a strong quarter on Wednesday early hours. However, the relief of a positive figure this quarter overpowered the worries of a minor fall in the indices. NYSE was down by 12.98 points closing at 7442.82 with a 0.2% fall. S&P, falling around 0.3% plunged by 3 points at 1169.43. DIJA slipped 51, now at 10,856. Global cues also experienced a negligible fall. The data revealed few optimistic figures, however, some number continued to maintain a low. The purchasing manager’s indexes of Chicago fell from 62.6% to 58.8% in last month. Most economists had expected a fall. This, however, was much bigger plunge than anticipated and came as a surprise. Similarly, New York City followed the trend of plummeting, and thus surprising economists. There was a major fall in the business activity in the city this month. The seasonally adjusted index of New York  [...]

Not all predictions are accurate and we all know this. However, if these forecasts are backed by some accurate figures and realistic logic, it’s wise to consider them and be vigilant. Let’s see what experts have to predict for 2010. We will see S&P reaching 1300 anytime this year $500 billion stimulus fund is yet to be released and Senate trying to put in another $1 trillion. This will predictably cause dollar to be weak. Our government is talking about policies that will strengthen the dollar value, but they seem to be following a dollar-weakening policy. Moreover, there is constant dumping of dollars by China. Housing prices and employment rate to fall The first quarter GDP shows a sharp rise of 4.5%. However, the real estate market is still moribund and no major enlistment has been noticed in the labor market. Most of the companies are focusing on cost-cutting and right-sizing.  [...]

Emerging Asia The recovery is very much underway in this region with growth impetus being provided by the fiscal stimuli and accommodative monetary policy. Unemployment is on decline in this region with inflation gradually moving into the positive territory though in the majority of economies it is still negative. China in particular had a wonderful quarter with the real GDP growing by 8.9% in the third quarter of 2009. Overall in the current year GDP in china has grown by 7.7% year on year. Growth has mainly been driven by fiscal stimulus as can be seen from the 7.3% contribution of stimulus driven fixed investment to annual GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2009. The positive consumer sentiment was evident from a robust 4% contribution from consumption to GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2009. Trade surplus though still at high level however continued to decline in  [...]

Euro-zone Helped mainly by government initiatives the Euro zone seems to be firmly on growth path. Germany and France in particular are showing promising growth. Factory orders in Germany increased by 2.7% month on month in September as against the forecasted decline of 1%. Industrial production in Germany also increased by 2.7% month on month in September. Overall for the quarter the industrial production has increased by 3.5%. As per estimates German GDP is expected to increase in the range of 0.5% to 1.0%. In the second quarter German GDP posted a growth of 0.3%.  Growing exports has also helped the German economy increasing by 3.8% month on month as per data from German Statistics office. Unlike Germany French economy did not have such a good run with its industrial production declining by 1.5% month on month as against the forecasted increase of 0.5%. Overall at the growth level  [...]

Japan The Asian giant is also on a recovery path with the economic activity recovering since the second quarter of 2009. The recovery has been mainly export driven which to a certain degree is a positive news as it indicates that other economies are also experiencing recovery. Industrial production continued to increase for the seventh consecutive month in September registering an increase of 1.4% month on month. However with weaker labour market and not much of corporate profit domestic private demand continues to be weak. Thanks to fuel and energy prices, inflation in Japan continues to be negative. Annual CPI at -2.2% was unchanged in September. Excluding food and energy annual CPI decreased to -1.0% from -0.9% in August. There are still challenges abound for the economy. With an export driven growth, Japan is to a large extent dependant on other economies for its growth. Exports  [...]

Latest indicators indicate that the world economy is on a recovery path.  The purchasing Manager’s index was at its highest level in October in more than three years clearly indicating that the economic activity has picked at a higher rate than before. Also the expansion of economic activity in October was broad based and strong in a number of advanced economies. USA The world’s big Sam is finally on recovery path with the economic activity expanding in the third quarter of 2009 after the consequent falls in the earlier two quarters. As per BEA estimates third quarter registered a growth of 3.5% in annualised terms in real GDP. This is definitely some good news given the fact that the last four quarters had negative growth. With the economy picking up momentum there has been gains in consumer spending. Private demand particularly for motor vehicle sales was helped by the government  [...]