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German industrial production unexpectedly fell 1.8% in October from September but shouldn't stall the broader upward trend in output, the Economics Ministry said Tuesday.
The decline, resulted from a dip in production in the energy and construction sectors.
Production had increased by a revised 3.1% in September, driven by the manufacturing sector.
Manufacturing orders also fell in October, the ministry said on Monday. The 2.1% monthly decline, was the first drop in eight months and resulted from weakness in the car sector and a drop in exports.
The German national statistics office, Destatis, reported today that German insolvency courts reported 14,430 insolvencies; 2,910 of them referred to enterprises and 8,925 to consumers. The total number of insolvencies increased 10.0% compared with September 2008, enterprise insolvencies increased 17.4% and insolvencies of consumers increased 7.4%.
The UK's industrial output failed to grow in October, missing analysts’ expectations of an increase, official data showed Tuesday. Sarah Hewin from Standard Chartered Bank and Arjuna Mahendra from HSBC Private Bank have analysis:
UK industrial production
The seasonally adjusted UK index of production in October 2009 fell by 8.4% compared with October 2008. The seasonally adjusted index of manufacturing in October 2009 fell by 7.8% compared with October 2008.
In the month of October, output was unchanged compared with September.
Manufacturing has now dropped on an annual basis for 18 months in a row, according to the UK Office for National Statistics.
The ONS said that September output was revised to show a 1.5% monthly gain and a 9.8% fall over the year.
Gas prices to fall
Bord Gáis has announced that its gas prices will be cut by 8% on February 1st.
The price fall has been proposed by the Commission for Energy Regulation, and will affect residential and small business customers.
The CER said the decline in wholesale gas prices in the British market and also the euro's strengthening against sterling, has triggered the planned dip.
Bord Gáis's average prices dropped by 12% in May and by a further 9.8% in October 2009 The company says the latest fall means a saving of €53 a year for the average consumer.
The energy regulator said it had also looked at electricity prices and concluded there was "no scope for change at this time."
Digicel
Digicel, the mobile phone service founded by businessman Denis O'Brien, which is mainly focused on the Caribbean market, announced today that it has completed a US$500 million corporate bond offering of senior notes due 2017. The bonds were sold with a coupon of 8.25% and priced at 98.625 to yield 8.5%.
The proceeds of the offering will be used to repurchase Digicel’s outstanding US$450 million 9.25% senior notes due 2012 in a tender offer or through redemption, with any balance retained by the company for general corporate purposes.
The offering was led by Credit Suisse, with Citi and J.P. Morgan acting as joint bookrunners on the deal.
Colm Delves, CEO of Digicel, said: “We are very pleased with the success of this refinancing of our 2012 bonds, which shows our continued disciplined approach to our debt management. The transaction enabled us to take advantage of the attractive interest rates available to us. As our recent results show, Digicel is generating substantial cashflow and profits. The lower coupon on our new issue reflects investors’ increasing comfort with Digicel’s declining risk profile.”
“Even in this economic climate, with our approach to delivering best value, best network and best service, we are growing our business and continuing to drive subscriber growth in our newer markets in Panama and Honduras. We are making strong progress building our postpaid customer base and levels of data revenues, and new initiatives on WiMax and targeting Diaspora sales will help deliver continued out-performance.”
Last month Digicel reported a 10% increase in its half year profit (EBITDA) to US$364 million on revenues of US$857 million. Digicel has grown its subscriber base by 7% in the past 12 months to 7.3 million, and in its most recent quarter to September 30th 2009, it added 98,000 subscribers.
Including Digicel’s sister companies Digicel Holdings (Central America) Limited and Digicel Pacific Limited there are now 32 markets served by Digicel and over 10 million customers. The wider group has shown a compound annual growth rate in subscribers of over 40% over the past two years.
CNBC's Steve Liesman and John Harwood take an in-depth look at the President's plan to create jobs:
US markets
Credit rating agency downgrades of Dubai and Greece debt, sparked renewed worries among investors Tuesday and prompted a move into the dollar.
The Dow is down 105 points or 1.01% 10,285.
The Nasdaq is down 0.93% and the S&P 500 has lost 1.00%.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, oil for January 2010 delivery is trading at $72.78 down $1.15 from Monday's close. In London, Brent crude for January delivery is trading at $75.58 a barrel.
Currencies
The euro is trading at $1.4748 and at £0.9056.
For live currency updates, check the right-hand column of the Finfacts home page.The dollar traded at a record low $1.6038 per euro on July 15, 2008.
Meredith Whitney, CEO of the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, shares her US market insight:
