New European house price index shows grim picture
House prices in Europe are falling according to Eurostat’s first house price index. House prices are widely monitored at a national level but there is shortage of comparable measures across countries. This new index partially covers this gap, but the picture it portrays is not encouraging.
Indian motorcycle sales, more representative than cars?
Indian car sales continue to slow down. This is being reported as a sign of a broader economic slowdown. But car sales is not the most representative measure of vehicle sales in India – most people drive two-wheeler vehicles.
Passenger car sales growth slowed to below 3 per cent in the first half of 2012, down from over 30 per cent at the end of 2010, but it now shows signs of recovery. The story that emerges when looking at two-wheeler vehicles is quite different, though. Read more
Don’t read too much into the Chinese monthly export data
Chinese exports grew faster than expected in December, lifting hopes for a prompt recovery from the country’s slowdown. The December reading for exports is certainly good news, but there should be caution in looking at monthly export figures. Read more
What can other countries tell us about Britain’s labour productivity puzzle?
Labour productivity continues to fall in the UK, today’s latest ONS release shows.
Output per hour dropped by 0.2% in Quarter 3, 2012, compared to the previous quarter. This means a fall of over 2% compared to the same period last year and over 3% compared to the pre-crisis period. This is a particularly striking drop considering than in the five years before the financial crisis labour productivity rose by over 12%.
The reasons for this remain rather a puzzle. And a look at other European countries confirms that the UK is unusual. But it’s not unique. Most core European countries had a drop in productivity levels compared to those in the US. But their performance varied considerably during the last few years of economic crisis, as this chart highlights … Read more
Monti’s liberalisation sweetener shows signs of delay
At the start of this year, Mario Monti, the Italian prime minister, unveiled a programme of liberalisation, which together with austerity measures were meant to put the country back on track for growth.
The package triggered protests from taxi drivers, pharmacists, petrol station operators and lawyers – all professions that were included in the liberalisation plan. The measures also targeted the gas and electricity market, the insurance sector and local public services. The aims of these plans were to reduce the costs of goods and services to consumers and to foster competition among providers, with cheaper products and services making the austerity measures easier to digest.
Export growth strong in China’s western regions
Chinese exports grew less than expected in November, fueling fears of a further economic slowdown. But exports from western inland Chinese regions have never grown so fast as in 2012, beating export growth rates of the rich industrial coastal regions.
Chinese export growth declined to 2.9 per cent in November from 11.6 per cent in October. On a rolling 12-month sum exports grew at an annual rate of 7.9 per cent in November, a figure well below the more than 30 per cent growth of the late 2010 and early 2011 and marks a 28-month record low. But not all regions in China experienced the same slowdown.
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Kate Allen works in the editorial statistics team in London. She previously specialised in housing data reporting for a national trade magazine.
Chris Cook works in the FT's comment team. After joining the FT in 2008 as a Peter Martin Fellow, he worked for two years as a leader writer and then as education correspondent.
Emily Cadman joined the FT in 2010 and is head of the interactive desk.
Martin Stabe works on the FT's interactive team, specialising in databases for interactive graphics.
Keith Fray heads the editorial statistics team, providing data for articles and graphics. His background is in economics, studying at Birkbeck College, London.
Norma Cohen is the FT's Demography Correspondent.
Valentina Romei is a statistical researcher at the FT. She joined the FT in 2008 after working both as an academic and market researcher.
Older entries
