Moody’s reduced the rating of 13 banks in Italy’s Apennines, including such banks as UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo. The long-term rating of the banks dropped from A3 to Baa2 with a negative forecast, RIA Novosti reports.
Italy has been facing serious economic problems and passed some anti-crisis programs this year. One of the programs is Spending Review, developed and passed by the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti in early July.
The government’s plans need approval of the parliament. Expenses in 2012 should drop by €4.5 billion, in 2013 by €10.5 billion, in 2014 by €11 billion.
The IMF has given new predictions on world economy for 2012, reducing forecasts from 3.6% to 3.5% expected in April. They were also reduced from 4.1% to 3.9% for 2013. The US GDP forecast dropped by 0.1% for 2012 and 2013. Thus, the IMF expects it to total 2.0% and 2.3% respectively. The GDP of the euro zone this year will drop by 0.3%, coinciding with the April forecasts.
The IMF approved a loan of €1.48 billion for Portugal, as part of the financial aid program worth €78 billion.
Officials of the IMF noted that Portugal may reach the indicators set for 2012. International creditors say that Portugal may reduce its budget deficit to 4.5% in 2012.
US stock market indexes had a recession. Nikkei 225 (Japan), KOSPI (South Korea), Hand Seng (Hong Kong) experienced growth. SSE Composite (Shanghai) had a minor drop.
Analysts expected reports on reduction of oil reserves by 750,000 barrels last year. The last week could be the fourth in a row with reduction of oil reserves in the US. Experts of CMC Markets say that the price of $81.5 per barrel may cause volatility at the market.
Russian industrial output in June dropped by 0.6%, compared with May. Industrial development dropped from 3.7% to 1.9% in May, totaling 3.1% in the first half of 2012.
Extraction of minerals dropped by 2.2% in June, compared with May, after increasing by 2.2% a month earlier. It increased by 0.2% throughout the year in June. Extraction increased by 0.2% in Q2, compared with Q1, and by 0.4%, compared with the same period last year. Mineral extraction increased by 0.9% in Q1 2012, compared with the same period in 2011.
Processing industry had a growth of 1%, compared with May, and 6%, compared with the previous month. The growth throughout the year totaled 3.4%, compared with 7% in May. Processing increased by 11.3% in Q2, compared with Q1 2012, and by 4.7%, compared with the same period in 2011. Processing increase totaled 4.5% in the first half of 2012.
Production and distribution of electricity, gas and water dropped by 11.2% in June, compared with May, by 11.2% in May, compared with April. Reduction totaled 33.7% in Q2, compared with Q1. It dropped by 0.8% throughout the year. Production and distribution of electricity, gas and water increased by 1.8% in the first half of 2012, compared with the same period in 2011.
