Spain's Treasury launched a 15-year syndicated bond on Tuesday, seeking to take advantage of a relatively benign market view on its debt, but had to offer a significant yield pick up to lure investors. A source told Reuters the Treasury hoped to place between 3 bln and 5 bln euros of the bond via a
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* Foreign investors shy away Greece sold six-month T-bills at a slightly higher yield on Tuesday than a previous February auction, its first borrowing sortie after a three-notch Moody's downgrade to B1 raised yield spreads to near peak crisis levels. The auction drew less interest from foreign investors, who bought about 31% of the issue
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* Key is stabilising economy, lowering borrowing costs Ratings agency Fitch is almost certain to downgrade Cyprus's sovereign credit rating, Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis said on Tuesday. "I consider it inevitable that there will be a downgrade by Fitch," he told reporters. Fitch now rates Cyprus AA-. It placed the island on credit watch “negative”
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Top executives from some of the world's biggest energy companies on Tuesday said global oil supply is plentiful in spite of Libyan supply disruptions, and urged U.S. policymakers not to tap strategic oil stockpiles. At the high-profile CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, chief executives from French oil major Total SA, U.S.-based Hess Corp and Kuwait
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* Move raises pressure on euro zone to ease loan terms * EU's Rehn urges lower rates, longer maturities — Moody's slashed Greece's credit rating by three notches on Monday due to an increased default risk, raising the spectre that the distressed euro zone sovereign may have to restructure its debt, perhaps before 2013. The
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Cyprus retail trade growth accelerated in the last two months of the year, according to revised data for November and provisional data for December. According to the provisional figures, the turnover volume index of retail trade for December 2010 increased by a huge 37.0% over the previous month, and by 3.9% compared with December 2010.
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Registered unemployment trended upwards again in February, with the number of people registering as unemployed rising by 24.5% compared with the year year earlier, up from 22.3% in January and 19.3% in December. The total number of registered unemployed was 29,806 persons. The trend was also upwards on a seasonally adjusted basis, with the number
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Cyprus inflation held steady in February, with prices rising by 2.8% compared with the same month of the previous year. Using the raw Excel data provided by the Statistical Service for 2010 and 2011, this means that the consumer price inflation rate in February was the same rate as recorded in January. However, the Statistical
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Figures for December show that total industrial production fell by 0.8% in 2010, with manufacturing down 3.3% but with “water supply and materials recovery” up 18.9% and mining and quarrying up 12.4%. Electricity supply grew by 2.1%. In December alone, industrial production dropped by 2.5% compared with December 2009. Meanwhile, in January the index of
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Services turnover in key parts of the services sector was up last year according to the latest figures from the Statistical Service, and fared better in the fourth quarter than for the year as a whole. Administration and support services performed best, with turnover up 7.7% over the year earlier in January-December. Within this category,
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