Business And Personal Finance

PSA Peugeot Citroen expects a contraction of the European car market in 2012 although it is still too early to assess its extent, said Thursday the President of the Executive Philippe Varin.

These remarks were made while the Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers has reported a decrease of 7.6% of new car registrations in November. Data that confirmed the difficulties of PSA, whose sales fell 15.4% last month.

"We will be in Europe, probably negative growth next year.How, we do not know, it's too early, "said Philippe Varin told reporters on the occasion of the inauguration of a new production of three-cylinder engines at its facility in Trémery (Moselle) .

The annual production capacity of the new gasoline engine with smaller displacement will eventually reach 640,000 units per year.

The company said in a statement it had invested 717 million euros since the project began in 2008.

Manufacturers currently rely on the "downsizing", that is to say reducing the displacement of their engines, to reduce CO2 emissions equal power.

The first engines produced Trémery equip the future Peugeot 208 will be sold in the first quarter of 2012.

Airbus anticipates a decline in orders in 2012 compared to 2011, the success of the A320neo, announces CEO Thomas Enders.

"There will not be the same kind of firework of new orders in 2012 as there has been this year," said Tom Enders daily Börsen-Zeitung, in an interview published Thursday.

Despite expectations of a recession, the two major aircraft manufacturers worldwide have accumulated very large orders this year after deciding to upgrade their best-selling models, namely the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, by equipping them with new engines capable save 12% to 15% fuel.

Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS, is leading the race by promising that the A320neo would be available by 2015.It has sold more than 1,000.

The manufacturer plans to increase its production rate to 44 A320s per month. He must make a decision soon.

But first we must weigh what is happening economically, said Thomas Enders at Börsen Zeitung.

"But the airline demand is there, and for the second half of the decade, when the" neo "released in 2015, a further increase of production is quite possible," he adds.

The boss of Airbus also points out that in the tough current economic climate, some suppliers of small and medium sized have difficulty obtaining financing and banks are reluctant to finance aircraft construction.

"We must find new sources of funding.

Statements are increasing demand for greater involvement of the European Central Bank in supporting countries' debt fragile. Germany opposes even his veto. But until when? German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The list of support for bold action from the European Central Bank (ECB) on the European debt grows by the day. On Tuesday the United States have supported through the U.S. ambassador to the European Union. William Kennard suggested essentially the ECB to take as an example the action of the Fed during the crisis. Much more direct, the former head of Credit Lyonnais Jean Peyrelevade said that "if one does not involve the ECB, while Petera." This does not prevent the leaders of the Central Bank to resist these demands, aided by Germany, its largest shareholder.

Greek banks erase their losses Thursday morning as investors bet on a drop of the referendum on the bailout of the country in case of fall of the government.

Banks, who lost up to 5% at the opening, gaining nearly 2% to 10:20.

"Given the developments of the last hours, the possibility of a referendum was removed and the top priority is now the sixth tranche disbursement of aid and approval" of the rescue plan EU says Natasha Roumantzi, an analyst at Piraeus Securities.

George Papandreou Thursday called an emergency meeting of his cabinet at 11:00. The head of government is under fire from critics since he announced Monday night to hold a referendum.

The OECD slashed its growth forecast Monday for the 2012 United States and the euro area, urging G20 leaders to act quickly to restore confidence and avoid a severe contraction in developed economies.

In a note issued in anticipation of the G20 summit on 3 and 4 November in Cannes, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development cut its 2012 growth forecast for the euro area to 0.3% against 2.0% in May and 1.8% against 3.1% for the United States.

She called on G20 leaders to take "bold" to calm market turbulence and show that they can implement structural reforms address the debt crisis.

The OECD estimates that deteriorating financial conditions of the order of that seen during the crisis of 2007-2009 could result in loss of up to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) of some OECD economies of 'By the first half of 2013.

Conversely, if the measures announced at the EU summit last Wednesday are effectively implemented and that can restore confidence, growth could be better than expected, judge the OECD.

For all G20 countries, the OECD now expects growth of 3.8% in 2012 and 4.6% in 2013, but it will be pulled up by the emerging markets including China (+ 8.6% in 2012 and 9.5% in 2013).

Countries of the European Union agreed Thursday to recapitalize their banks to the tune of 100 billion euros but profound differences between Paris and Berlin on how to reform the fund to support the euro area led again postpone the most important decisions.

At the request of Paris and Berlin, an additional peak in the euro area will be held next Wednesday to not only agree on how to maximize the firepower of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), one of the expected by the market to combat the crisis, but also review the new plan to rescue Greece.

Another failure could undermine investor confidence definitely in the ability of Europeans to put an end to the debt crisis and put them in a particularly uncomfortable position for the G20 summit in Cannes in early November.

The bloc, however, managed to make progress on the bank part of the "global response" they hoped to present Sunday.

Several European sources and banking, they have agreed to inject including 100 billion euros in banks on the continent to strengthen their capital, a move that was expected to take into account the depreciation of the sovereign debt of countries in the euro area.

"The figure was discussed with Member States.It is now acceptable to all, "said a source familiar with the discussions.

The banks will first have to use their internal reserves or market and then to national funds.Once these possibilities exhausted, it will use the funds from the EFSF.

EFSF, GREECE

Faced with the difficulties to agree on the reform of the EFSF and the contours of the new rescue plan for Greece, Paris and Berlin have agreed to this additional meeting of Heads of State and Government of the single currency, in Brussels.

President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel also announced in a joint statement they would meet on Saturday night in Brussels to discuss the various topics of these meetings.

Regarding the EFSF, Paris insists that the fund receive a banking license, allowing it to access funding from the European Central Bank and increase its capacity for action by a factor of up to five.

Berlin refuses, however, this possibility and is working on an alternative of allowing the EFSF to pay interest on the debt of countries receiving international aid program.

The latter mechanism is far from unanimous among the countries of the euro.

According to several sources, Paris and Berlin are unable either to agree on the amount of the participation of banks in new bailout of Greece.

The German authorities, in particular Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, insist that the envelope of 50 billion euros negotiated on July 21 is significantly revised upwards, if necessary by forcing banks to make an extra effort.

"(Wolfgang) Schäuble is pushing the most for the discount (on securities Greek) goes at least 50% or more," said one source.

According to these sources, the idea made its way to several Member States not to be limited to the voluntary participation of banks, but to force them to a more ambitious plan for Greece.

"Seriously, everyone knows that when you request a discount of 50%, as does Germany, it is not a voluntary decision," insisted one of them.

Another source said that the countries now working on scenarios "aggressive" in reducing the Greek debt.

MARKETS Skeptics

If they divide the Europeans, these scenarios are needed to satisfy the International Monetary Fund, which is concerned about the ability of Greece to manage its debt and is awaiting the results of the summit on Sunday to release the next tranche of aid in Athens, according to three sources.

The position of the IMF, however, should not jeopardize the payment of 8 million euros in Athens in mid-November, otherwise Greece would fail and could result in his fall Spain and Italy, causing a shock of the impact difficult to measure for the European banking sector.

Greece was plunged into recession and debt should continue to rise to 357 billion euros this year, about 162% of GDP, an amount that most economists believe is impossible to fulfill.

As protests continued in Athens, markets greeted coldly this cacophony European hoped after a time earlier this week a prompt resolution of the crisis.

The euro initially fell on rumors of postponement of the summit, he then bounced back when they were denied.

Analysts are also skeptical themselves.

"I do not think they can meet expectations. The results of the summit will be very much less than the big bang that markets needed to be reassured," said Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London.

The resident of Calvados in September which won the sum of 162 million euros in the Euro Millions became known to the French Games. He was thinking of "investing in the French economy." If the Euro Millions grid costs two euros across Europe, certain terms of games vary from one country to another.

The winner of the jackpot of 162,256,622 euros in the Euro Millions draw of 13 September, which had approved the ballot in Calvados, became known to the French Games (FDJ) and received his check, said Thursday morning the JDF in a statement.

This player, who wishes to remain anonymous, has the highest gains in French Euro Millions and all-time record earnings in a money game in France.He "thinks about investing in the French economy", or to real estate projects adds the JDF without elaborating, at the request of the player, on the date of payment or the locality where the Calvados has been validated winning newsletter . {P}

Scavengers and transport agents have been on strike for eight days in Athens. They protest against wage cuts under the new austerity plan. Their movement caused the accumulation of tons of garbage in the city. Thousands of "outrage" expressed Sunday, June 19 against the austerity of Syntagma Square in Athens.

Athens was again denied Monday transport due to a 24-hour strike, while tons of garbage piled in the streets after more than a week of mobilization scavengers against wage cuts. No subway, bus, trolley and tram, with only the train interbanlieue running, the main lines of the Greek capital was delivered to huge traffic jams, as on several occasions in recent weeks.

Employees of organizations from the metro and buses, which are manifest in the early afternoon in the center of the capital, protesting against investment in short-cuts and new salary, recently announced by the government, under pressure from country's creditors, the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In turn, municipal employees responsible for waste removal began their eighth day of the strike, while the only landfill in the city remained closed. Torrential rains in the morning had drained the garbage on the roads, aggravating the condition of the streets.

Several government agencies, such as the National Agency for Medicines (EOF), the National Laboratory of Chemistry and the Society of IT Management of Social Security (Idika) were also occupied by their staff.To protest against new measures to cut public sector officials have observed a 24-hour strike Wednesday, the day some 30,000 employees of government departments and public bodies demonstrated in Athens and Thessaloniki (north).

A general strike in the public and private sectors is also scheduled for Oct. 19. The representatives of the troika of the country's creditors (Commission and European Central Bank, IMF) Monday also continued their audit of the Greeks, for the discount provided by 24 October of a report based on which area euro to decide the payment of a portion of eight billion euros, vital to the country always on the verge of bankruptcy.

Tensions in the interbank market have an impact on the real economy. Nearly a third of French banks have tightened their criteria for business loans. And the movement should be extended.

Credit conditions for firms have tightened slightly in France in the third quarter, according to a survey by the Bank of France to the banks, which provide a greater tightening in the fourth quarter.

The balance between the institutions reporting a tightening and those seeing a relaxation reached 28.5 in the third quarter, according to data released Friday. This is the first tightening since the second quarter of 2009.

The hardening observed is almost the same for large businesses (28.8) and SMEs (28.5).The period from July to September, "the criteria for granting loans to enterprises were tightened more than expected in the previous survey," notes the Bank of France. "This hardening, attributed to both balance sheet constraints and bank financing to the rise of their risks, is reported by less than a third of them and spoke mainly in quarter-end," said the institution.

Banks and particularly given the tightening tensions they encountered to finance markets and the prospect of entry into force of the new regulatory framework Basel III said, in favor of a strict control of the size of balance sheets and thus the volume of loans. This tightening of credit conditions has been accompanied by a decline in business demand, more sensitive SMEs (balance -33.2) than large firms (-15.1).

More worrying for the economy, the banks see these two tendencies assert themselves in the fourth quarter.

The last three months of the year, the institutions surveyed foresee a further tightening (net 41.6), the strongest since the third quarter 2008, which corresponded to the financial crisis. The banks provide the same time, a further slowdown in demand for corporate credit (negative balance of 34.6).

The European Central Bank has not changed interest rates on Thursday, the rise in inflation last month having won on expectations of lower rates in response to the deepening crisis in the euro area.

The refinancing rate remains at 1.5%, the deposit facility rate to 0.75% and the marginal lending rate to 2.25%.These rates have not budged since 7 July, when all three were found a quarter of a point.

President Jean-Claude Trichet will give his final at 12:30 GMT news conference before handing over to the end of Mario Draghi.

The markets are wondering if a possible break leave for the ECB to lower rates anyway by the end of the year or if it will announce the resumption of bidding Long.