20121031 1004 Global Economy Related News.

Singapore: Below-potential growth likely as price pressures persist
Singapore’s economy will grow at below-potential levels for a second year in 2013 even as a tight labour market and rising costs of goods and services add to inflationary pressures, the central bank said. The island’s pace of growth “slowed discernibly” in the past two quarters, and external demand is expected to remain “tepid and volatile” next year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a twice-yearly review yesterday. Gross domestic product may increase 1.5% to 2.5% this year, it said, reiterating a previous forecast. It didn’t give a prediction for 2013 growth. (Bloomberg)

Japan: BOJ offers unlimited loans to banks to increase demand
Japan’s central bank said it will offer unlimited loans at low interest rates to lenders to try to boost credit demand among companies and households. The money will be for terms of up to four years and based on the overnight call rate, currently 0.1%, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. The move was alongside a JPY11trn (USD138bn) expansion of the central bank’s main easing tool, its asset-purchase programme. Japan is turning to a wider array of unconventional tools for monetary easing as the global slowdown, waning auto sales and a dispute with China set back an economy that remains mired in deflation. (Bloomberg)

S. Korea: Output rises for first time in four months on carmakers
South Korea’s industrial production rose for the first time in four months as stronger sales of cars and electronics helped offset the effects of a cooling global economy. Output rose 0.8% last month from August when it dropped a revised 0.9%, Statistics Korea said yesterday. The median estimate of 11 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 1.5%. Production rose 0.7% from a year earlier. (Bloomberg)

India: Chidambaram irked as Subbarao defies call for rate cut
India’s central bank resisted calls from Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram for lower interest rates, prompting him to say the government will revive economic expansion by itself if necessary. Governor Duvvuri Subbarao kept the repurchase rate at 8% to damp price increases, while reducing the cash reserve ratio to 4.25% from 4.5% to support lending, the Reserve Bank of India said in Mumbai yesterday. Borrowing costs have remained unchanged since a 50 basis-point cut in April. (Bloomberg)

Spain: September budget deficit narrows
Spain’s central government budget deficit narrowed in September as a sales-tax increase buoyed government revenue, boosting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s campaign to resist asking for a sovereign bailout. The central government’s deficit was 4.39% of gross domestic product in the nine months through September, compared with 4.77% in the eight months through August. Value-added tax receipts surged 11.9% in September from a year earlier as an increase came into effect, Deputy Budget Minister Marta Fernandez Curras told reporters in Madrid late yesterday. (Bloomberg)

Germany: Jobless rate rises for first time in three years
German unemployment rose twice as much as economists forecast in October and the jobless rate increased for the first time in three years as the sovereign debt crisis damped economic growth and investment. The number of people out of work climbed a seasonally adjusted 20,000 from September to 2.94m, the Federal Labour Agency in Nuremberg said yesterday. Economists forecast a gain of 10,000, the median of 31 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey shows. The adjusted jobless rate rose from a two-decade low of 6.8% in August to a revised 6.9% in September and held there in October, the agency said. (Bloomberg)

US: Real estate recovery challenged by hurricane Sandy
The US real estate recovery that’s gained strength this year faces a setback from flooding and property damage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy, the biggest tropical gale to hit the Atlantic seaboard. The storm battered homes in Eastern coastal states that account for about one out of every five US real estate sales and threatened inland areas with flooding and blackouts. Lenders put transactions on hold and companies like Coastline Realty in Cape May, New Jersey, pulled in their for-sale signs to prevent the wind from turning them into projectiles. (Bloomberg)