Forex Fundamental Analysis

Property bubbles can have serious consequences on a nation’s economy as recent experience in Ireland and Spain have highlighted.

Last week was a mixed affair for the world’s major markets with the Nikkei returning to a weekly positive result for the first time this year.

Japan has a mature nuclear industry and prior to the earthquake and tsunami that wrought much devastation in March 2011, 30% of the nation’s electricity needs were met from nuclear power generation capacity.

The good news is that Greece has reported a balance of payment surplus for 2013 – in short, the nation has earned more than it spent.

The administration of Shinzo Abe has been in power for a little more than a year. His goal has been to rejuvenate the Japanese economy, reversing years of stagnation, and to end deflation within the economy by stimulating domestic demand.

Last week saw all of the major markets making ground with the exception the Nikkei which has continued to fall since the New Year.

If you’d like the “feel good” version of this story, then its: “Eurozone Growth Triples Between Q3 and Q4 2013!”

The end of January marked a changing of the guard at the Federal Reserve with Janet Yellen taking over the chairmanship from Ben Bernanke.

The United States Treasury has been warning that unless borrowing restrictions, the so-called debt ceiling, were lifted, the nation risked defaulting on its obligations before the end of the month.

The Swiss held a referendum at the weekend which produced a wafer-thin majority for re-establishing a quota system for immigrants to the country, notably from the EU.

Last week saw the major markets making ground with the exception of the Dax, which was essentially flat and the Nikkei which has continued to fall since the New Year.

There had been speculation that the European Central Bank (ECB) would further reduce their key interest rate beyond its current record low of 0.25% during their February meeting.

In life, just about everything is inter-related. Data for retail sales in Europe during the last month of 2013 showed that the Eurozone saw its worst monthly downturn for thirty months.

No sane person could be happy to see US national debt above $16.7 trillion (that’s eleven zeroes after the seven!) – unless you happened to be a creditor, of course.

The world’s largest economy grew by 0.8% in the final three months of 2013, giving an annualised growth figure of 3.2%, according to the first estimate produced by the US Department of Commerce.