German Exports Slump 4.3%; France Sentiment Stable

Arthi Gupta
08 Feb, 2012
New York City

German exports slumped, and the Danish and Hungarian surplus declined in December. French business sentiment remained stable in January. The National Bank of Poland and Iceland left rates unchanged.

[R]3:00 PM Frankfurt – German exports slumped, and the Danish and Hungarian surplus declined in December. French business sentiment remained stable in January. The National Bank of Poland and Iceland left rates unchanged.[/R]

German Exports Slump

German exports, on a calendar and seasonally adjusted basis, slumped 4.3% from a month ago in December, following a 2.6% growth in November, according to the latest data from the Federal Statistics Office released today.

The decline in exports was the largest since January 2009.

German Factory Turnover Declines

Germany''s manufacturing turnover decreased a working-day adjusted 0.5% from a year ago in December, reversing the 1.8% increase in November, data released by the Federal Statistics Office showed today.

From a month ago, the seasonally and working-day adjusted factory turnover fell 2.2% in December compared to the 1.4% fall in November.

France Business Sentiment Stable

The business confidence index for the industrial sector in France remained unchanged from the previous month at 96 in January, data released by the Bank of France showed today. The December reading was revised up from 95.

Polish Central Bank Holds Rate

The National Bank of Poland left its reference rate unchanged at 4.50% for an eighth month in a row.

The central bank also maintained the lombard rate at 6%. The deposit rate and the re-discount rates were left unchanged at 3% and 4.75%, respectively.

Separately, Iceland''s central bank decided to leave the benchmark 7-day collateralized lending rate unchanged at 4.75%. The overnight lending rate was at 5.75% and the interest rate on current account remained at 3.75%.

Danish Surplus Falls

Denmark''s seasonally adjusted trade surplus declined to DKK6 billion in December from DKK6.3 billion in November, data released by Statistics Denmark showed today.

Exports increased a seasonally adjusted 4.6% from a month ago to DKK51.7 billion in December. Imports advanced 6.1% sequentially to DKK45.8 billion during the month.

Hungarian Surplus Drops

Hungary''s trade surplus dropped to €352.1 million in December from €413.6 million in the same month last year, preliminary data released by the Central Statistics Office showed.

Export of goods fell 0.9% annually to €5.899 billion and imports edged higher 0.1% from last year to €5.547 billion in December.

Spanish Output Shrinks

Spain''s industrial output declined a working-day adjusted 3.7% on an annual basis in December, data released by statistics office Ine showed.

Production of durable consumer goods fell 12.5% annually, while non-durable consumer goods production edged up 1.3% in December.

In the whole of 2011, industrial output fell 1.8% from the previous year, the agency said.

Swiss Jobless Rate Steady

Switzerland''s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.1% in January, data released by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs showed.

The number of registered unemployed increased 3,655 from the previous month to 134,317 at the end of January.