According to reports in local media, Taiwan-based supermarket retailer Rt-Mart plans to open its first outlet in Beijing and this new supermarket will be located in Beijng's Chinatown Shopping Plaza. One of the world's largest supermarket chain retailers, Rt-Mart entered the mainland China market in 1997 and by the end of 2008 it had opened 102 [...]

Well, it is not as if I relish rubbing salt into old wounds, but this quote from the a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8bb0da5a-c7dc-11de-8ba8-00144feab49a.html"latest piece by Ben Hall in Paris and Ralph Atkins in today's Financial Times/a is just too good to resist.br /br /blockquoteFrench manufacturing output rose at its fastest rate for nine years, according to a survey on Monday, confirming that France has become the economic powerhouse of continental Europe. Purchasing managers’ indices for manufacturing showed France performing significantly better than the continent’s other main economies – thanks to robust domestic demand./blockquotebr /br /a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SvASaIFOk2I/AAAAAAAAPjI/Xa0wjOVFc3A/s1600-h/france+manufacturing.png"img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 213px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399836193272533858" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SvASaIFOk2I/AAAAAAAAPjI/Xa0wjOVFc3A/s400/france+manufacturing.png" //abr /br /Plenty of food for thought in this paragraph it seems to me. As a href="http://spaineconomy.blogspot.com/2009/10/french-rebound-continues-in-october.html"foreshadowed in this earlier post/a, it is the French economy - and not the German one - which is rebounding sharply, and this ...

A spectre is haunting Europe, but this time it is not the spectre of revolt by the popular masses, or even one of yet another wave of bank bailouts. No, the spectre which is currently stalking the corridors of Europe's most prestigous institutions is one of a Spanish economy which stays on a flatline while Europe's other economies, one by one, start to struggle back to life. And the main reason that this particular ghostly image is giving everyone so many sleepless nights is because Europe's current institutional structures, and especially the monetary policy tools available at the ECB are scarcely prepared for such a nighmare eventuality.br /br /br /strongFrance Is Recovering, And The Rebound Is Robust/strongbr /br /First it was just a rumour, then it was a possibility, and now it has become a reality - some of Europe’s economies are springing back into life. But only some. It ...

Well, I never thought I would have to wait very long to get some confirmation of my last post on things that could go bump in the night in France, but even I wasn't expecting confirmation of what I was trying to get at so quickly. Now, according to a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f7e77b94-c2e0-11de-8eca-00144feab49a.html"Frank Atkins in The Financial Times this morning/a:br /blockquoteThe eurozone has reported the first year-on-year fall in bank lending to the private sector, strengthening the case for the European Central Bank to maintain its ultra-loose interest rate policy. The latest eurozone credit statistics indicated lending had been scaled back at an unprecedented pace, even though signs have become stronger that the 16-country region’s economy has stabilised./blockquotebr /br /What are we talking about here?br /br /Basically bank lending to the euro area private sector shrank by an annualised 0.3 percent in September, according to the European Central Bank's monthly report, making ...

Whoever would have thought that some people once called economics the most dismal of sciences? Certainly, as the current crisis goes on and on, those of us who consider ourselves to be economists scarcely are able to find the time to squeeze in a dull moment, even here and there. But even at a broader level, interest in that most dismal of dismal topics - the theory and practice of central banking - seems now to fire up levels of enthusiasm here in Spain that make even the appetising prospect of a forthcoming Real Madrid-Barça football match pale in intensity. Even if it is the case, I have to admit, that the everyday Johnny (or Jill) come lately sitting in the bar still - truth be told - prefers the sports columns of the daily newspapers, or the lacivious details of the latest romantic adventure of one of the rich ...

Rt-Mart, the supermarket retail investment of Ruentex Group, has announced plans to merge with the French retail group Auchan and the two may launch an IPO in Hong Kong in 2010. Ruentex Group said the two parties are still in negotiation and if they reach an agreement, their cooperation will be limited to the Chinese mainland [...]

According to a representative from the asset engineering department of Carrefour China, the French-headquartered retailer plans to invest between CNY50 million and CNY60 million in energy-saving renovation in its Chinese outlets in 2010. The representative said energy-saving renovation and construction have recently become major issues for traditional retail enterprises. Over two years of energy-saving renovation, Carrefour's [...]

Quietly clicking my way through Bloomberg last Sunday afternoon, a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchiveamp;sid=aC4zbsgMD6x8"I came across this/a:br /br /br /blockquotestrongFacebook Members Register Names at 550 a Second/strongbr /br /Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social-networking site, said members registered new user names at a rate of more than 550 a second after the company offered people the chance to claim a personalized Web address.br /br /Facebook started accepted registrations at midnight New York time on a first-come, first-served basis. Within the first seven minutes, 345,000 people had claimed user names, said Larry Yu, a spokesman for Palo Alto, California-based Facebook. Within 15 minutes, 500,000 users had grabbed a name. /blockquotebr /br /Mein Gott, I thought to myself, if 550 people a second are doing something, they can't all be wrong. So I immediately signed up. Actually, this isn't my first experience with social networking since I did try Orkut out some years back, but ...

French business confidence rose for the second month in May as record low interest rates and falling inflation appeared to be encouraging French consumers to start shopping again.. The Insee sentiment index - based on a survey among 4,000 manufacturers rose to 72 from 71 in April.br /br /pa href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/Shz6mPuvaOI/AAAAAAAAOEM/CrtzAmlphDY/s1600-h/france+business+confidence.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340418793119115490" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 213px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/Shz6mPuvaOI/AAAAAAAAOEM/CrtzAmlphDY/s400/france+business+confidence.png" border="0" //abr /Consumer confidence also rose to a 13-month high, according to a separate gauge of consumer sentiment published today - it was up at minus 40, from minus 41 in April. The level is still, however, not far off historic lows.br /br /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/Shz7oLxXLGI/AAAAAAAAOEU/DwxV6QUYuKU/s1600-h/france+consumer+confidence.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340419925927734370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 213px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/Shz7oLxXLGI/AAAAAAAAOEU/DwxV6QUYuKU/s400/france+consumer+confidence.png" border="0" //abr /br /French consumer spending increased in April as government incentives boosted car sales and slowing inflation helped cushion ...

Well the eurozone outlook is certainly deteriorating less rapidly at this point, as attested to in the May flash PMIs - which show the pace of economic contraction slowing markedly. Purchasing managers’ indices for the 16-country euro area jumped rose significantly this month, and hit their highest level for eight months. It is important to bear in mind that the index still registered contracting economic activity, but the rate of decline fell for a third consecutive month. Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, which compiles the purchasing managers’ indices, said the latest readings were consistent with second quarter GDP falling about 0.5 per cent quarter on quarter, or by a 2% annual rate, well down from the 2.5% quarter on quarter reading (or 10% annual rate) registered in the first three months. Still, we are still in the realm of contraction, and Organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, the ...