by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /There is no doubt about it: Italy's economic situation has worsened considerably during the current quarter. Only last week the OECD forecast that Italy's gross domestic product is likely to fall by 4.2 percent in 2009. This follows hot on the heals of an earlier statement where the OECD said the situation in Italy this year and next was "much worse" than it had previously thought, and that Italy would not come out of its recession until "sometime" in 2010 at the earliest. According to the earlier forecast the OECD expected GDP to fall this year by one percent and then by a further 0.8 percent in 2010.br /br /The Bank of Italy has also changed its forecast, and now suggest that GDP this year will fall by 2.6 percent. In January (the last time they revised their Italy forecast), the IMF forecast ...

by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /br /strong/stronga href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SWJCBADk-EI/AAAAAAAAMBE/lRuGq1QvY5c/s1600-h/cafe+fiorino.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287861497448691778" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SWJCBADk-EI/AAAAAAAAMBE/lRuGq1QvY5c/s320/cafe+fiorino.png" border="0" //abr /br /Spain's inflation (as measured by the EU HICP methodology) was around 1.5% (year on year) in December 2008, according to the flash estimate issued by the stats office (INE) earlier this week. This number only offers us an initial glimpse of the final HICP reading, but, if confirmed, it will mean Spain's annual rate of inflation has dropped 0.9% (nearly one full percentage point) in the space 0f just one month - since in November the annual rate was 2.4%.br /br /It will also mean that Spain's inflation for 2007 dropped its the lowest rate in a decade, down sharply from the 2007 rate of 4.2 percent. This is remarkable since Spanish inflation has generally been over the EU average for more ...

strong/stronga href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SWJCBADk-EI/AAAAAAAAMBE/lRuGq1QvY5c/s1600-h/cafe+fiorino.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287861497448691778" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SWJCBADk-EI/AAAAAAAAMBE/lRuGq1QvY5c/s320/cafe+fiorino.png" border="0" //abr /br /by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /br /Spain's inflation (as measured by the EU HICP methodology) was around 1.5% (year on year) in December 2008, according to the flash estimate issued by the stats office (INE) earlier this week. This number only offers us an initial glimpse of the final HICP reading, but, if confirmed, it will mean Spain's annual rate of inflation has dropped 0.9% (nearly one full percentage point) in the space 0f just one month - since in November the annual rate was 2.4%.br /br /a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SWHrDP6v8KI/AAAAAAAAL_M/-UWmp9lHkN8/s1600-h/spain+CPI.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287765878554751138" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 187px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SWHrDP6v8KI/AAAAAAAAL_M/-UWmp9lHkN8/s320/spain+CPI.png" border="0" //abr /br /It will also mean that Spain's inflation for 2007 dropped its the lowest rate in a decade, down sharply ...