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’Defcon Latvia, Swedish krona edition
Another day, another Latvia development.
Although, as Danske Bank note, it’s getting harder to determine what’s really going on the ground. From their report on Tuesday:
Most recently, it seems Latvia’s prime minister has decided to change the sums lenders can collect on outstanding mortgages to better reflect the current market value of the properties.
ECB to markets: “No, we can’t”
That, at least, is UniCredit’s interpretation of the latest rheotoric from the European Central Bank and its officials, a stance which the bank’s chief economist Marco Annunziata describes as a “peculiar reversal of logic”.
CDS report: EU nation default risk touches record high
The cost of insuring debt issued by the Irish government leapt higher this morning as Europe’s beleaguered credit derivatives traders swallowed hard on last night’s news the Irish state had finally decided to bail out Anglo Irish bank.
Not a good start to the presidency
That would be the Czech Republic’s presidency of the European Union, by the way, which the Eastern European country took on January 1st.
So why so bad? Well, on Wednesday the country’s statistics office reported industrial production fell by 17.4 per cent -the most since 2000 and roughly twice as much as predicted by analysts.