A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Thursday: ___ FRANKFURT _ The head of the European Central Bank hinted it could begin withdrawing some of its crisis measures soon, while the Bank of England pumped more money into the economy in an attempt to get Britain out of recession. Neither bank touched interest rates, already at record lows of 1 percent for the eurozone and 0.5 percent in Britain. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said that the 16 euro countries face an uncertain recovery. But he broadly hinted the ECB was getting ready to take back some of its added lending measures that have provided banks with ready cash during the financial crisis and promised to say more at next month's meeting. ___ LONDON _ British industrial production and new car registrations rose in recent months, data showed, as the Bank of England announced it would increase the size of its monetary stimulus. With the economy still mired in recession, the central bank said it would spend another 25 billion pounds ($41 billion) to buy assets from banks to expand the money supply. The Bank, which held its key lending rate at an all-time low of 0.5 percent, reiterated its view that recovery would be slow. ___ LONDON _ European stock markets recouped early losses and closed higher as more optimistic economic assessments from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England helped recoup earlier losses. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading closed up 17.75 points, or 0.4 percent, at 5,125.64 while Germany's DAX rose 36.69 points, or 0.7 percent, to 5,480.92. The CAC-40 in France was up 38.40 points, or 1.1 percent, at 3,708.73. ___ MEXICO CITY _ Mexico's president says the country has emerged from a deep recession and the economy is already growing. President Felipe Calderon says the economy likely expanded 2.7 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter, although third-quarter gross domestic product figures are forecast to contract 6.4 percent in annual terms. Officials have yet to release that data. The finance department predicts Mexico's economy will contract by 6.8 percent in 2009. Calderon expects the economy will grow by 3 percent in 2010. ___ BERLIN _ German government tax revenue is expected to fall about 3 billion euros ($4.4 billion) short of previous estimates this year, the Finance Ministry said, but the new governing coalition vowed to press ahead with tax-cutting plans. Germany's economy, Europe's biggest, is expected to shrink by 5 percent this year and grow by 1.2 percent in 2010. The slowdown has weighed on tax revenue. A regular meeting of tax experts this week estimated that this year's total tax revenue will be 524.1 billion euros ($779.18 billion) _ 2.9 billion euros ($4.31 billion) less than was forecast in May, and largely a result of changes in tax regulations, the Finance Ministry said. That would mean a 6.5 percent decline compared with the previous year, a post-World War II record, said Andreas Rees, an economist at UniCredit in Munich. ___ WARSAW, Poland _ Poland's unemployment rate inched up to 11 percent in October due largely to layoffs and the end of seasonal summer jobs in farming and forestry, the Labor Ministry said. The jobless rate rose from 10.9 percent in September, according to the preliminary figures. Some 1.74 million people were registered as unemployed at the end of October. The Central Statistical Office will release official jobless figures later this month, but those numbers are unlikely to differ from the ministry's data by more than one-tenth of a percentage point. Poland's jobless rate peaked at 20.7 percent in February 2003, as a result of its shift from a communist to market economy. Unemployment dropped sharply after Poland joined the EU in 2004, to as low as 8.8 percent last October before the global economic crisis hit. Continued... |