World Articles

This is no time for confrontation between the executive and the banks. The atmosphere was very relaxed even on Friday morning at Bercy, in the presentation by the Minister of Economy of an assessment of the credit situation in France. Accompanied by the Governor of the Banque de France, Christian Noyer, and the new Vice-President of the French Banking Federation, the CEO of Societe Generale, Frederic Oudéa Christine Lagarde welcomed the rebound in bank financing. "We just make a point with companies. The commitments were made, she said. Banks have played the game "

The rules of the game in question had been established early March.After a very difficult 2009, the banks had agreed to pay loans to micro and small enterprises to 96 billion euros in 2010, to increase their stock of 3% in one year, and reduce delays response to business demands paydayloans. According Bercy, the mission is accomplished. Overall, credit to the economy (businesses and households) rose 3.2% in France to reach 1 791 billion euros in assets, against a growth of 1.2% for the average euro area. "The distribution of credit in France is much more dynamic than in the entire industrialized world," Christian Noyer supported.

Low margins

The French are less pessimistic. According to the INSEE survey, consumer sentiment improved in September to -35 points. The index continued its slow recovery and has gained 4 points since June, but remains below its long-term. This new publication falls one day after a sawtooth consumption during the summer in France.

In detail, the French are more confident in the improvement of living standards in general (+2 points) on the evolution of their personal financial situation (+1 point). They are also more likely to agree that it is the right time to make major purchases (+4 points) paydayloans.

Fears of unemployment continue to dissipate. "After being kept at a very high level since October 2009, the balance of opinion has dropped 24 points in two months," recalls the INSEE, which provides that the balance of opinion remains above its average long term.

While households believe that inflation increases (+4 points), they are more likely to judge it appropriate to save (+4 points). "Households feel that their ability to save in the months ahead improved (2 points compared to July), also states INSEE.

Discontent grew visibly among pharmacists, already on strike for two guards and a half months. Tired of not seeing further their claims for their increasing financial difficulties with the government, two unions broke with the usual retention of the profession and organizing awareness campaigns.

The National Union of pharmacies in France, third union of the profession, and on Tuesday called for a "dead day". For this symbolic action, the green crosses will be extinguished and staff are invited to wear black gowns to attract the attention of patients on the "programmed death of local pharmacies," said Fred Lawrence, vice president of organization. Patients will still continue to buy their drugs.On 11 October, will be the second union of the profession, the Trade Union pharmacists, who will organize in Paris an action punch. "In ten years of existence, is the first time that our profession is launching a protest," said Gilles Bonnefond, deputy president of the USPO, lamenting that negotiations with the government "lying".

Unions have already been received by the Department of Health on September 15 but emerged satisfied from this meeting. "They are aware that the network is experiencing real difficulties, and no progress has been made on the main demands," said Frederick Lawrence, who also regrets that the next meeting is scheduled for 25 October. "The draft budget law for Social Security in 2011 will already be under consideration.Rather not move. "

A two-week closure

The financial difficulties of pharmacists raise a growing concern within the profession. Trade unions estimate that close to two pharmacies each week. Last year, "111 pharmacies were placed in safeguard proceedings, in receivership or liquidation, on a network of 22,500 pharmacies. Is small compared to other types of businesses but it's never before seen in our profession. "Confided Philippe Gaertner, president of the FSPF (majority), Le Figaro in August.

To remedy this situation, the unions want to change the system of margins decreasing, which has remained unchanged over the past decade: over the box of medicine is expensive, the higher the share granted to a pharmacist is low. However, sales volumes and prices for most cereals have fallen.However, unions do not agree on how to reform the system.

The FSPF UNPF and want to reduce the regressivity, while the USPO would rather increase the margin of cheaper drugs and put an end to large packages, which is to deliver the chronically ill a box with enough medication for three months instead of having them come back every month.This second solution would have the advantage of avoiding a waste – the boxes are never completely consumed and ensure proper monitoring of treatment by the patient, but the drawback would have to pay it more often 50 cents franchise per box.

The unions would also reach an agreement on the fee envisaged tasks other than selling drugs – monitoring of some chronic diseases, tips for "straightforward" cases do not require medical attention – as HPST law, passed in 2009 , offers this possibility.

While the strong yen's strength is in addition to concerns over the economic outlook for the United States, the meeting promises to be eventful in the Paris Bourse. After the profit taking which had plagued the Asian and American markets, the CAC 40 fell sharply changing from 1.49% to 3435 points.

As for companies, an impressive set of interim results announcements is scheduled on Tuesday.

Carrefour and Ipsen does not convince the financial markets

Shortly after the opening of the Paris Bourse, no CAC 40 company to remain constant rise. Among the largest declines in the place was cyclical stocks. First, the bank stocks. Societe Generale lost 2.20% and 39.30 euros, Dexia was down 2.17% to 3.25 euros, BNP Paribas gives up 1.98% to 48.15 euros and Credit Agricole shows a net decline of 1.82% 10 euros.

Then, the values automobiles.Peugeot lost 2.32% to 20.40 euros and Renault yield 1.99% to 31.47 euros.

Carrefour is also on the top of the table, with a decline of 1.69% to 35.50 euros, despite a net profit of 67 million euros against a loss of 48 million last year.

The decline was more limited pourEurazeo, which is ironed into the green with a net profit of 88.5 million euros against a loss of 120.9 million, a year ago. The shares lost 0.62% to 46.70 euros.

Hermes (-0.54% to 146.15 euros) a net profit up 55.2% to 194.6 million euros.

Ipsen (-3.06% to 27.07 euros) publishes an annual turnover up 6.3% to 553.9 million euros and earnings down 23.5% to 75.5 million Euro No faxing payday loan.

Iliad (2.23% to 71.05 euros), parent company of ISP Free and Alice, shows an increase of 138% of its net profit to 171.4 million euros. Finally, the group

Aeroports de Paris (-1.34% to 53.79 euros), manager of platforms Roissy and Orly airports, reported a net profit increase of 8.2% to 137.7 million euros and turnover of 1.3 billion euros (+2.5%).

Havas, Bouygues, Vinci and Eiffage publish after-hours trade.

Statistics expected

The meeting promises to be just as busy on the macroeconomic front. For the eurozone, the unemployment figures for July and inflation for the month of August (11:00).

In France, sales of new homes rose 7.6% in the second quarter over a year, while housing starts rose 0.2% and building permits by 31.4% between May and July 2010 , announced the Department of Ecology. The corporate failures for the month of March and agricultural prices in July will be released by INSEE 12:00.

In Germany, a single indicator of importance: the number of unemployed in August (10:00). In the U.S., house prices (15 hours), economic activity in the Chicago area (to 1545) and consumer confidence in August (16 hours) are also scheduled.

On the currency markets, the euro continued to lose ground against the yen (-0.52% to 106.56 yen) and against the dollar (-0.13% to 1.2649 dollar) to 7.45.

The Spanish economy is indeed recovering from recession. The results of the second quarter, with GDP growth of 0.2%, according to final figures released yesterday, confirmed. This is the second positive quarter after 18 months of recession. A marked improvement in household consumption, especially durable goods, coupled with a slight improvement in business investment boosted the recovery between April and June, also helped by strong exports. The contribution of domestic demand growth rose from -2.8% to -0.5%.

But the horizon may darken in the coming months. "We expected a good performance of consumption with purchases made ahead before stopping the car scrapping and entry into force of up 2 points from VAT, says Jesus Castillo, Natixis.In addition, new restrictive measures and labor market will always influence the damaged second half. "

Social unrest

Borletti group does not budge. The Italian owner of Spring, has indeed filed on Wednesday a takeover bid for German Karstadt department stores belonging to the giant Arcandor bankrupt.

Karstadt stores, whose most famous department store KaDeWe in Berlin, however, have been awarded last June to the investor Nicolas Berggruen associated with group BCBG Max Azria fashion that takes 20% stake. The pair pledged to resume all their 120 stores with 26,000 employees.

However, the sale is not finalized yet: it remains in effect suspended from a rental agreement negotiated between, on one hand, the two prospective owners and, secondly, Highstreet, which owns the Karstadt department stores walls. According to Dow Jones Newswire, the period of exclusivity granted to Berggruen expires on August 10 but would extend the financier.Borletti plans to oppose it by sending a letter Thursday to the director of Karstadt.

"The best offer" by Borletti

The Italian investor, Maurizio Borletti is the boss, so take advantage of these difficult negotiations to make its own offer, which according to him, is "the best deal for all parties." The group proposes to inject 100 million euros in department stores online payday loans. It undertakes not to dismantle the company and reinvest the profits and dividends for five years.

Borletti also promises not to close any stores in the short-term and 'preservation of employees' basic ':' no new termination, no increase in hours worked or pay cut, "he assures.

In addition, Borletti holder of 2% of capital Highstreet since 2007, says he would not need to renegotiate the rent.

Founded in 1860, the family group Borletti invested exclusively in department stores over the past five years. It has acquired shares in 2005 in the Italian department store La Rinacente and has invested the following year, in the French department store Printemps.

For its part, the union Verdi, which had welcomed the offer of Berggrün, said that the proposal Borletti arrived so late was not serious. "Mr. Borletti knew the deadline was the end of May, said a door-paroel Verdi at Berliner Zeitung.If he wanted to make a serious offer, he would have been able to do so. According to the German daily, including Verdi doubt that Borletti be able to make 100 million euros announced and suspected to be primarily concerned with Italian luxury stores Karstadt.

The Nikkei 225 of the Tokyo Stock Exchange yielded 2.11% at 9489.25 and passes under 9500 points on Wednesday. This decline was due to a fall in the dollar against the yen, a move that raised fears of weakening performance groups Japanese exporters, heavyweights document.

The shares of exporting firms are saddled the once heavily penalized by a strong yen and concerns about the U.S. economy.Sony so on, we let go of 1.19%, and Canon was able to take 0.66% after losing almost 4% in session.

The dollar was worth only 85.30 to 85.40 yen Wednesday in mid-session in Asia, a level at which it was not down for eight months and is lower than that on which important Nippon groups have based their forecast revenues and profits.

In terms of company announcements, the Japanese manufacturer of motorcycles and marine equipment Yamaha Motor sharply raised its forecast Wednesday for the annual results, having exceeded its goals in the first half of calendar year, helped by sales of mopeds in Asia. Yamaha now expects an annual turnover of 1.3 trillion yen (1.25 trillion previously expected cons), an increase of 12.7% over one year.It now expects an operating profit of 45 billion annually (instead of 10) and expects to complete the year with a net profit of 25 billion so he could just see the balance.

Ambiance less bearish in the rest of Asia

In Hong Kong, even, the Hang Seng returned to the equilibrium toward 7:00 and stood at 21,455.8 points. In Shanghai, the MIC 30 fold from 0.54% to 2850.5 points. In Sydney, the S & P / ASX was down 0.64% to 4545.2 points.

Oil prices fell Wednesday in Asia, while remaining above 82 dollars a barrel. In morning trading, a barrel of light sweet crude for delivery in September yielded 14 cents to 82.41 dollars a barrel.

All local authorities are not equally affected by economic difficulties: this is the finding of the last report of the Observatory of local finance. The communes and intercommunal are spared the game as the departments and regions, they have no right to have an operating budget deficit. In 2009, they have done better: the excess of income over expenditure increased by 8.5%. It must be said that the mayors have taken advantage of early mandate to raise taxes. One way to form a mattress care.

The general and regional councils also have used the gun tax. But it was not enough, especially for departments. For the latter, the surplus between income and expenditure has shrunk by 17.8% in 2009. For social spending soared 5.3%.The crisis has pushed the bill of RSA and the aging of the population that of personal autonomy allowance (APA). The elected county expect a similar drift in 2010, "For some departments, the budget balance is very fragile," concludes the report.

Reduced investment

However, in 2011, the constraints will become even stronger. The funds that the departments, but also municipalities and regions, receiving state, which represent nearly 30% of their income, will no longer increase. This was decided by the government. Moreover, the reform of business tax will reshuffle the cards in local taxation. The communes and intercommunal retain a large basket of tax which they may determine the rate.The departments themselves, will not play on the property tax and regions on the gray card No fax cash advances. A situation that worries the county and regional elected and pushes them to invest less.

In 2010, capital spending will drop the first 2.2% and 3.4% of the latter, according to the report. Spared, the mayors expect an increase of 4.5%. "But eventually, the municipalities will be affected because they receive subsidies from the regions and departments," warns Philip Lawrence, in right-wing President of the Finance Committee of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF).

What are the solutions? The local financial professionals, such as UMP or Marc Gilles Carrez Laffineur propose to increase the redistribution between rich and poor communities.Another avenue: better management of intercommunal. For staff costs have mostly slipped to this level (they will grow 8% in 2010). The groups of municipalities have produced savings but duplicates! The government, he promised a reform of the APA to relieve the departments and the establishment of ad hoc aid. "But for now, we are expectant. If nothing happens, we will introduce a bill that will force the state to finally make up our social spending, "said Claudy Lebreton, President PS Assembly departments of France. Meanwhile, between votes and budgets insincere appeal to the courts, the climate remains tense between elected officials and county government.

ALSO READ:

The government and sentenced on local government reform

Bonuses for traders and bankers in Europe, accused of encouraging rampant speculation during the crisis, will be capped for the first time from next year, following the final adoption of a text with meaning Wednesday.

Two years after the outbreak of the financial crisis of 2008-2009, part of the United States with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the European Parliament in Strasbourg approved the text, which was the subject of a June 30 Agreement between the elected and the states of the EU.

In 2011, the bonus must not be disproportionate to the fixed salary and cash bonuses will be capped at 30% of the total premium, or 20% on premiums particularly important.

End outlandish bonuses

Much of the bonus will be paid immediately and will not be after a period of at least three years to allow the employer to recover some cases where investment does not function as expected.

Finally, at least 50% of a total bonus will be paid as contingent capital, which can be recalled in case of banking difficulties, so that taxpayers do not end up in the front line when a bank gets into difficulties.

In the case of banks that receive public subsidies, the text also provides that "no variable compensation should be paid the officers of the institution unless it is justified."

"Europe gets the rules of coaching salaries of bankers and traders with the most aggressive in the world," said a French Green MEP, Canfin Pascal, who negotiated the text free credit reports. "By limiting the proportion of variable pay in total compensation, this text will finally put an end to extravagant bonuses synonymous with extravagant risks," he added.

A text to the liking of the banking sector

"Two years after the outbreak of the global financial crisis, these tough new rules on bonuses will transform the culture of bonuses and incentives to end the excessive risk-taking", claimed that his side the Socialist Arlene McCarthy, parliamentary rapporteur on file at the agreement in principle on June 30

The text is however not to the liking of the banking sector."We believe that the agreement goes too far, because at the international level, there are already some principles" in the form of recommendations that were made including the Financial Stability Board (FSB), had informed the AFP secretary general of the European Banking Federation, Guido Ravoet after the tentative agreement. "We believe that this is not the public authorities to make amounts, percentages," he added, saying that this responsibility should be left to banks.

"If the international level, it does not follow Europe, European banks have a competitive disadvantage," says Guido Ravoet, who believes that "financial centers like New York, Singapore and Hong Kong will benefit."

Hostile to a widespread tightening, the G20 has accepted this weekend in Toronto fiscal restraint to the map, depending on the country and spread over time, thus reassuring the markets. The countries have agreed to "reduce by at least halving the deficit by 2013, and stabilize or reduce the costs of public debt to GDP by 2016, without setting binding targets to states, leaving more freedom for everyone, to reduce public deficits without jeopardizing the still fragile economic recovery on both sides of the Atlantic.

In Paris while the CAC 40 has lost about 5% in just four sessions of sharp decline – 10.5% after winning nine consecutive sessions of gains – the hesitation gave way late in the session at a beautiful hike .The CAC 40 gained 1.61% at 3576.45 points.

The euro was down, circa 1750, at 1.2337 dollars (-0.40%), while the gold – even likely – is still dealing $ 1,250 (-0.29%).

A well-attended American Statistical

At the European Central Bank, the M3 money supply fell by 0.2% in May, and remains unchanged over the month. Credit to private sector in euro area gained 0.2% in May over one year, after increasing 0.1% the previous month, according to preliminary results announcement on Monday by the European Central Bank

On the macroeconomic front, U.S. consumer spending rose 0.2% after remaining flat in April, according to statistics released Monday by the Commerce Department. Economists and analysts polled by Reuters had forecast an average increase of 0.1%.

The household income has risen in parallel by 0.4% after rising 0.5% a month earlier.Real disposable income has increased it by 0.5% in May after rising 0.6% the previous month.

The savings rate of Americans has reached 4.0% against 3.8% in April, which represents an additional savings of 454.3 billion annual rate, the highest level since September.

The index of consumer prices PCE excluding food and energy, rose 1.3% over the last 12 months, the Commerce Department said, against 1.2% in April.

But the statistic most watched this week will be the number of applicants for overseas jobs, which will be released Friday, which should mark a break in trend, with new positions expected destruction.But a rebound in employment in the private sector is also expected on Friday to reassure the markets, analysts said Aurel Bgc.

The tax credit: disagreements

Priority of Paris and Berlin, the tax credit has received a cold reception in Toronto at the G20. Despite support from Washington and London, the final communique does not mention the tax lip as a legitimate option for banks to charge up the pieces of the crisis.

In contrast, three of Basel, the beginning of compromise seems to be emerging.The reform of financial regulation will be based primarily on strengthening capital standards imposed on banks, not the end of 2012 before.

On Monday just before noon, bank stocks are well oriented, but unequally: BNP Paribas stands out, gaining 2.48%, Societe Generale has assembled no more than 0.70% and 0.02% Credit Agricole.

Banques populaires Caisses d'Epargne According to information Wansquare, BPCE Foncia has decided to withdraw the sale. The preparation of a new law on directors and the rout of Urbania Group took account of the sale of the land.

Casino: -0.08% to 62.72 euros Jean-Charles Naouri, CEO of the group, delivered at Figaro's strategy to cope with a sluggish consumption in France, however, offset by continued momentum abroad.The boss has no plans to float Cdiscount and will focus more on small and medium format hypermarkets (6 000-8 000 square meters), rather than the hypermarkets.

Trigano will on Monday publish its turnover for the third quarter of fiscal offset. Shares rise 1.07% to 14.705 euros in mid-day.