The Basel Committee’s recent agreement on final capital rules for global banks is set to have only limited effect on overall capital requirements, but will impact EU banks more strongly than their peers. In recent quarters, European banks have already strengthened their capital ratios substantially and have become more profitable, thanks to moderately better revenues, lower costs and lower loan losses. Balance sheet size and risk-weighted assets have declined, underscoring the continuing lack of growth momentum in the industry. This might change somewhat next year, as European banks could benefit from the strong performance of the economy via a pickup in lending, which so far has remained sluggish.

Further tailwinds from declining loss provisions and falling expense levels are less likely though. With a growth rate of probably 2.3% in 2017, Germany delivered the main positive surprise in the industrial world. In 2018, German GDP looks set to expand by 2.3% again. If this forecast materialises, Germany will grow at an above-potential rate for the fifth year in a row. The upcoming wage round and resilient demand combined with the global decline in free capacities might, however, push up prices more strongly than currently expected. We already voiced concerns ahead of the Bundestag elections that the new government (just like its predecessor) might not pay sufficient attention to urgent challenges such as digitalisation, demographics and globalisation as the labour market situation is favourable.

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Now that forming a government has turned out to be unexpectedly difficult our concerns have increased. Elections, referenda and politics have held quite a few surprises in the last 1 ½ years. While there is a general feeling among voters that things are moving in the wrong direction – although there are certainly differences of opinion about the direction itself – the outcomes of recent elections and polls have probably done very little to counter their disenchantment. One reason for this frustration is the increasing complexity of political issues. How To Install A Head Unit In A Vt Commodore on this page. They just cannot be resolved using the simple answers offered by many populists. Voters crave such simple answers, however, as throughout evolution humans have been very successful in reducing complexity by applying heuristics, simple rules drawn from experience. No real surprises hidden in the “Saint Nicholas” reform package from Brussels, a detailed set of reform proposals and communications that the European Commission published as a “roadmap” for deepening EMU.

The proposals build on Commission President Juncker’s September State of the Union speech and, in essence, match closely with the French vision of more stabilization and risk-sharing in the EU, while they also try to meet German demands for better supervision of fiscal rules. The strong focus on anchoring any further integration of the Monetary Union - such as the reform of the ESM and the introduction of a Eurozone budget - in the institutional framework also illustrates the wariness in Brussels of being sidelined in its fiscal competencies and to allow the euro area to further develop on its own. The EU Commission proposed new mandatory CO₂ targets for passenger cars. These targets cannot be achieved with combustion engines alone. Stricter regulation thus enforces the electrification of the power train. However, the average car buyer currently does not play to the tune of regulatory policy and turns a cold shoulder on most alternative fuels.

There are other climate policy instruments that outperform the CO₂ targets for passenger cars in terms of meeting the environmental targets and economic efficiency. The fluid political situation in Germany threatens to stall EU policymaking in a number of fields, above all the build-out of the euro area. The EU summit on Dec 14/15 is unlikely to yield an agreement on a potential roadmap for reforming the monetary union making it even more difficult to take final decisions in June 2018 as envisaged by the EU Commission. This will in return dampen optimism that a French-German tandem will provide a fresh impetus to the EU as a whole before the European Parliament elections in 2019.

Beyond the Catalan referendum, independence movements in Europe seem to enjoy a revival. But calls for greater autonomy or even secession are not just about cultural identity - financial discrepancies between regions also play a major role. Unsurprisingly, most of the regions with strong separatist tendencies are amongst the wealthiest in their respective countries.

Via Hd Audio Uaa Driver Setup Wizard Windows 7. Calls for (more) independence seem to be loudest when national financial equalization mechanisms lead to results that are perceived as disproportional, such as in Spain or Italy. On November 3, the Dax reached a new record high, at 13,505. It has more than doubled since 2010.

However, the commonly used total return index is unsuited for international comparisons. In addition, the Dax which is dominated by manufacturing firms is not representative of the German economy as a whole, which relies much more on the services sector.

Despite the recent gains, the German stock market remains underdeveloped. With a market cap of 57% of GDP, Germany continues to rank last among the large European countries. This is not least due to a pension system which hardly involves the capital market, to risk-averse retail investors and to a large share of family-owned companies.