The severity of Latvia’s economic depression and the government’s deflationist policies have never been in doubt. However, the success of the internal devaluation process remains questionable. The adjustment process was meant to lower domestic prices, particularly wages, in order to restore the international competitiveness of the economy and stimulate exports. According to the latest data,… [Read more]
The three Baltic economies of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have been the biggest losers of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, contracting by 14.1%, 14.8% and a whopping 18.0% in 2009 respectively. After overheating in the preceding three years (Latvia grew on average 10.9% between 2005 and 2007), tightening global credit conditions towards the tail-end of… [Read more]
The last few weeks have certainly been good to the Spanish on the football pitch and the tennis court. But as the sporting hangover begins to wear off, all eyes will return to the ailing economy. Unlike Greece, Spain has not come to the forefront of investor concerns in recent months because of its sovereign… [Read more]
It is now over 9 months since Greece’s sovereign debt crisis brought the Eurozone’s stability to the forefront of investor concerns. With a trillion dollar bailout fund in place, and the recent bounce in the euro (some 5% against the US dollar), can we assume that the worst is now behind us. Justin Patrie, Head… [Read more]
The euro continued to rally in today’s trading and is beginning to approach key technical resistance around the US$1.2750/EUR area. Though on the daily chart the unit is beginning to look increasingly overbought, the technical pattern points towards further upside for the euro, and I would not rule out a push to US$1.30/EUR. So how… [Read more]
Last week Mark Schaltuper, BMI’s Head of Europe Analysis, spoke on CNBC European Closing Bell about the prospect of an internal devaluation for the least competitive eurozone economies.
Financial markets seem to have a very short memory span when it comes to aligning with macroeconomic fundamentals these days. Though the release of housing sales numbers in the US today and the short-lived euphoria of China’s loosening of its exchange rate regime at the start of the week seem to have shaken up equities… [Read more]
