Japan Rebuke to G-20 Nations May Signal Moves to Weaken Yen

on , from bloomberg.com

Japanese purchases of foreign bonds to weaken the yen may become more likely as the nation rejects trading partners’ rights to criticize its currency policies. “Foreign countries have no right to lecture us,” Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo on Dec. 28. He said that the U.S. should have a stronger dollar and questioned whether major Group of 20 nations had stuck to pledges from 2009 to avoid competitive currency devaluations. Japan’s new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may accept trade friction as a cost of spurring growth and countering deflation through a looser monetary ... (Read the full story)

Greece's Papaconstantinou Faces Bank List Probe

on , from greekreporter.com

Facing an investigation into whether he tampered with a list of more than 2,000 Greeks with $1.95 billion in secret accounts in a Swiss bank by removing the names of three relatives, former Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said he is being set up as a fall guy. The probe is into the now notorious so-called Lagarde List, named for former French finance minister Christine Lagarde, now head of the International Monetary Fund, one of Greece’s chief lenders. She provided the names on a CD to Papaconstantinou in 2010 as part of a larger data base of material stolen from the Geneva branch of HSBC ... (Read the full story)

China Manufacturing Pickup Shows Rebound Gains Traction

on , from businessweek.com

China’s manufacturing unexpectedly expanded at the fastest pace in 19 months in December, boosting optimism that a recovery in the world’s second-biggest economy is gaining traction. The final reading of a Purchasing Managers’ Index was 51.5 in December, according to a statement from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics today. That compares with the 50.9 preliminary reading on Dec. 14 and a final 50.5 in November. A level above 50 indicates expansion. China’s economy may have rebounded after a seven-quarter slowdown as the government increased spending on infrastructure and accelerated ... (Read the full story)

Merkel looks solid as German employment climbs

on , from marketwatch.com

One of the most unexpected declarations of 2012 was the proclamation by British Prime Minister David Cameron that Britain had to be more like the Germans. Earlier in December he urged his compatriots to copy Germany’s approach to skills and training for industry and business as a way of maintaining high employment levels in a tough competitive world. In 2013 we will hear more Cameron-style entreaties to adopt a “Germanic approach to skills” — and more praise for the German “jobs miracle.” Despite Europe-wide economic gloom and signs that the recession in the troubled southern half of the ... (Read the full story)

Greek retail sales fall 17.1% in October from a year earlier

on , from @dailyfxteam

BREAKING (Read the full story)

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