Black or illegal economies in countries can help during a recession but dishonest activity has to be on a sizeable scale to have an impact, according to research by Germany’s biggest bank Deutsche Bank.
The IMF (International Monetary Fund) said on Monday that it expects a multi-speed recovery in Europe in 2010 with the jobs market only picking up gradually. Meanwhile, ECB (European Central Bank) president, Jean-Claude Trichet, said that “confidence is the key word for 2010.”
World trade rose by 0.8% month on month in October, after a strong 5.4% increase in September, but it was still 13.2% below its peak of April 2008. Meanwhile, Bloomberg says a 26-mile-long line of idled oil tankers, enough to blockade the English Channel, may signal a 25% slump in freight rates next year.
Two prime residential sites were sold at auction for a lower-than-expected $1.34 billion, in a sign that one of the world’s hottest property markets is cooling off.
In an indicator of how the Bay Area continues to suffer from the recession, San Francisco’s office vacancies have surged to their highest levels in five years.
Redwood Capital won an auction for the assets of senior-community developer Erickson with a $365 million bid, beating a KKR-led group.
Investors are jostling for the chance to buy a $1.1 billion package of commercial real-estate loans extended by failed banks, as these once-toxic assets attract growing interest.
There is no doubt that European property stocks have come charging back this year. But as any investor knows—past performance isn’t a guarantee of the future.
Irish Economy 2009: The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) says in its Winter Quarterly Economic Commentary, published today, that it is hard to overstate what a difficult year 2009, has been for the Irish economy. The ESRI says that while Budget 2010 was clearly regressive, the combination of Budgets 2009 and 2010 placed most of the burden of fiscal adjustment on higher earners.
The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index declined 1.5% in October from September. Based on the index, prices for commercial real estate were 36.4% lower than in October 2008 and 43.7% below the peak measured in October 2007