Germany’s Trade Balance is expected to narrow to 9.3 billion euro in April from 11.3 billion in the previous month as exports fall -0.1% while imports add 0.5%. The slump in global demand has weighed heavily on overseas sales of manufacturing goods, Germany’s top export commodity, with outbound shipments down over 21% to date since peaking in October of last year. Further weakness is likely ahead: Factory Orders falling a greater-than-expected -37.1% in the year to April and Industrial Production is set to slump -20.5% within the same period; meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has predicted that world trade volumes will contract -11.0% this year and recover just 0.6% in 2010.

Turning to the UK, UK House Prices likely fell -13.3% in the year to April according to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The reading marks a shallow rebound from March’s record-setting -13.6% annualized drop, though prices have a long way to go before a meaningful rebound can be ascertained. Further, as noted by RICS in the latest house price balance survey (above), stabilizing property values owe as much to lackluster supply as firming demand, meaning it is far too premature to expect a robust improvement in home prices to boost owners’ net worth and meaningfully improve the spending climate.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 1:39 am and is filed under British Pound, Currency Trading, Economic Indicators, Economy, Euro. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.