Italy in Recession, German Bond Yields Fall

Arthi Gupta
12 Mar, 2012
New York City

Germany sold

[R]2:00 PM Frankfurt – Germany sold €3.493 billion of debt at lower borrowing costs and the Italian economy entered a recession in the fourth quarter. Spanish registered home sales slumped, Danish surplus soared and Greek output fell in January.[/R]

German Bond Auction

Germany raised €3.493 billion from the auction of ""Bubills"" with 6-month maturity at an average yield of 0.0531% from 0.0761% in the last auction, the Bundesbank said. The bid-to-cover ratio rose to 1.6 compared to 1.5 at the previous auction.

The maximum target set for the debt sale was € 4 billion.

German Wholesale Price Inflation Eases

German wholesale price annual inflation eased to 2.6% in February from 3% in January, the Federal Statistics Office said.

On a monthly basis, wholesale prices rose 1% in February compared to the 1.2% gain in January.

Portuguese Inflation Climbs

Portugal’s consumer price index rose to 3.6% in February from 3.51% in January, data from Statistics Portugal showed.

On a monthly basis, CPI rose 0.1% in February after remaining unchanged in January.

Italian Economy Shrinks

Italy''s gross domestic product declined 0.7% in the fourth quarter compared to the 0.2% drop in the third quarter, final data from the statistics office Istat showed today. The fourth quarter decline matched the estimate published on February 15.

Annually, GDP decline was revised down to 0.4% from 0.5% in the fourth quarter.

Spanish Property Transactions Fall

Spain''s registered selling of homes decreased 26.3% in January from the prior year, the statistics office INE said today.

About 86.2% of the registered home sales corresponded to urban properties and 13.8% to rustic properties.

The number of property transfers was 151,186 in January, 4.5% less than for the same month in 2011, and 31.4% more than in December 2011.

Danish Surplus Soars

Denmark’s seasonally adjusted trade balance showed a surplus of DKK 8.3 billion in January compared to DKK 5.7 billion in December, driven by a 2.2% growth in exports and a 3.2% fall decline in imports after adjusting to seasonal variations, Statistics Denmark said.

Separately, Denmark''s inflation was 2.8% in February, unchanged from January, data from Statistics Denmark showed today.

Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased 5.7 % annually in February, while clothing and footwear climbed 2.8%.

From a month ago, prices rose 1.3% in February.

Greek Output Drops

Greece’s industrial production fell a working-day adjusted 5% annually in January, after falling 12.4% in December, data from the Hellenic Statistics Authority showed today.

Production in the mining and quarrying sector rose 6.1% while manufacturing output declined 6.3% annually in January.