The week of anticipation has come to an end with China announcing Q2 GDP figures early this morning. The country’s economy grew by 7.6%, which is less than the 7.7% expected outcome, but still above the country’s economic target of 7.5%. Yet, this is the slowest growth China has seen since 2009 and it is probably paving the way to some QE.
Staying in Asia, Japan said it was expecting healthy GDP growth and to put the idea of quantitative easing on ice for a while. Meanwhile, things are seriously going up and down in Singapore. The country’s economy expanded by a ridiculous 9.4% in Q1, just to contract by 1.1% in the second quarter of the year. Overall, that puts the annual GDP forecast of 2012 to 1.9%. The contraction is mostly being ascribed to the low import demand from Europe. The bottom line: Asia continues its decline, or rather, it’s sluggish existence. Shut up, Japan.
Moody’s has downgraded Italy to two notches above junk, something the EU has called “inappropriate” in terms of timing and the country’s yields jumped back above 6%. Bank of America’s research has taken some game theory to the problem that is the eurozone and concluded that in terms of exits, Italy would leave BEFORE Greece does anything… read article
JP Morgan announced its earnings today; the expected $2.2bn loss due to the London-whale-trading-loss-situation was officially bumped up to $4bn against $5bn in income in Q2. Ouch. read article
Speaking of banks, Morgan Stanley estimates that the banks connected to the Libor rate-fixing scandal could pay as much as a combined $22bn in fines, while the Washington Post is throwing gems like this at us: an email from Timothy Geithner to Sir Mervyn King with a pdf attachment to reform Libor with reporting requirements. read article
Finally, Transparency International has ranked the 105 largest corporations by, well, transparency… view graphic
Have a good weekend!
Filed under: news brief, Bank of England, China, EU, eurozone, game theory, GDP, growth, Italy, Japan, JP Morgan, Libor, London, Morgan Stanley, philosophy, quantitative easing, rating, Singapore, Timothy Geithner, Transparency International
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