Italian deficit narrows in third quarter

Now that Japan has an open door to buy euro to ‘help out’ the region’s finances, and the ECB’s funding terms and conditions forcing deflationary austerity measures that continue to bring euro zone deficits down, I’m itching to buy the euro vs the yen.

At some point, however, and maybe as soon as q3 this year, or even sometime in q2, the austerity in the euro zone will fail to reduce deficits and instead the tightening measures will cause growth to go into reverse and deficits to increase, causing fundamental euro weakness.

But until then, the euro remains fundamentally strong, with technicals/one time portfolio shifts causing the sell offs.

Headlines:
Portugal Finance Minister says no need for bailout
Euro May Decline to 2010 Low Against Yen: Technical Analysis
ECB intervenes as debt crisis deepens
Portugal faces growing tensions
Tensions Rise Before Portugal Auction
Germany May Soften Objections to Euro Fund Increase
German 2011 Construction Sales May Drop, HDB Building Lobby Says
German Trade With China Rose to a Record in 2010
French Business Confidence Rose in December for Fourth Month
Italian deficit narrows in third quarter

Italian deficit narrows in third quarter

(FT) Italy’s public budget deficit narrowed in the third quarter of last year, putting the economy on track to hit government austerity targets of about 5 per cent of gross domestic product in 2010. As a result of austerity measures passed in December, Italy is targeting a public budget deficit of 3.9 per cent in 2011 and 2.7 per cent in 2012. Debt is expected to peak at about 120 per cent of gross domestic product this year, giving the economy ministry little room to manoeuvre. In the third quarter, the public deficit narrowed to 3.2 per cent of GDP compared with 3.9 per cent in the period a year earlier, according to data from the national statistics office. It narrowed to 5.1 per cent of GDP in the first nine months, down from 5.5 per cent a year earlier.

Japan buying euro bonds

JAPAN FINMIN NODA: JAPAN WILL BUY EURO BONDS TO HELP BOOST TRUST IN EFSF SCHEME

EURO RISES AFTER JAPAN FINMIN NODA SAYS JAPAN TO BUY EURO BONDS

JAPAN NODA: TO BUY ABOUT 20 PCT OF BONDS PLANNED TO BE ISSUED JOINTLY BY EURO ZONE LATER THIS MONTH

Japan Joins China in Assisting Debt-Crisis-Hit Europe

By Toru Fujioka

January 11 (Bloomberg) — Japan plans to buy euro-zone
sovereign bonds, its finance minister said, joining China in
assisting a region hit by a fund-raising crisis.

Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda told a news conference in
Tokyo today that Japan will use its foreign-exchange reserves to
buy more than 20 percent of bonds to be issued under a special
assistance program to help Ireland.

“It’s appropriate for Japan to make a contribution as a
leading nation to increase trust in the deal,” he said.

China has also expressed support for the euro zone, with
Vice Premier Li Keqiang last week expressing confidence in
Spain’s financial markets and pledging more purchases of that
nation’s debt. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said on Dec. 21
his nation has taken “concrete action” to help the European
Union address its debt crisis.

The euro climbed immediately after Noda’s comments, rising
as high as $1.2991, before trading at $1.2952 at 11:50 a.m. in
Tokyo.

>   
>   This is being done in an effort to weaken ¥ vs €.
>   

Yes, with the cover of helping the euro zone, just like China, who announced the same a short while ago to lead the way for Japan.

Japan has been actively seeking ways of weakening the yen to support their exporters.

They publicly bought some $ last year, and their US Tsy holdings have been falling, indicating something unannounced has been going on as well.

And their budget was somewhat expansionary.

Weakening the yen like this is one of the things somewhat subtly working to limit US aggregate demand growth, which should be a good thing for us (we can have lower taxes for a give size govt) but unfortunately our leadership simply lets aggregate demand languish.