Europe

Greece will fail to achieve the goal of revenues from privatization this year. The target of € 3.7 billion is a mirage, it will be a success if the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund will bring in cash an amount of between 1.5 bln to 1.7 bln euro despite the acceleration of certain divestments in recent months . Yet the privatization plan is one of the cornerstones of the Athens bailout program, after three plans agreed with the EU and IMF 250 billion.

Volkswagen has reached an agreement with the two suppliers CarTim and Es Automobilguss, who had suspended deliveries forcing the automotive group to stop the production of Golf and Passat.
The group had been charged by the supplier to have canceled the contracts without cause or notice and refusing to compensate them. Volkswagen however, had asked to reduce costs in order to remain competitive, after the allocations decided to cope with fixing scandal emissions.
"The manufacturing sites involved – VW announced in a press – are gradually preparing itself to resume production."

Swiss exports in July have progressed by 7.9% to 17.7 billion, and imports by 11.8% to € 14.8 billion. This was announced by the Federal Customs Administration stating that this figure takes into account the fact that in the month under review, there were two working days less than in July 2015.

The European manufacturing appears static, anticipating a new phase of economic stagnation in the second half of the year. According to the analysis conducted by Markit, the Eurozone economy in August continued to increase at a steady pace, although the manufacturing PMI fell to 51.8 points from 52 in July, ranking the lowest level in three months. The preliminary figure released today, while still expanding area, given that it remains above the critical threshold of 50 points, it was lower than expected indicating 52 points.

Switzerland should return attractiveness for foreign companies, as stated by Daniel Küng, CEO of Switzerland Global Enterprise, the newspaper Le Matin Dimanche.

The number of settlements in the Swiss nation returns to increase "already this year or next," says the entity responsible for promoting Switzerland’s economy. Küng believes that much of the uncertainty of these years are gone or will be in the coming months. It cites the taxation of profits and the end of the possibilities to evade taxes offered to companies by OECD member countries. The competitors of Switzerland can be found at the same level.

Negative rates on current accounts are making new fans: after the example of Raiffeisen Gmund, even the Royal Bank of Scotland, under pressure to the expansionary monetary policy of the Bank of England, will impose rates below zero on some types deposit.

From today, some large customers of the investment banking division will no longer maintain free cash as collateral in their accounts: a move that will result in a withdrawal for about 70 customers of the bank, owned by the British state for 73%. No change, at present, fot other accounts, personal and business.

The Swiss believe that Brexit will have positive consequences for their country, according to the gfs.berne Institute who analyzed 2016 barometer of the concerns of Credit Suisse. The majority of the population considers, in fact, that Switzerland’s position will be strengthened.
"The citizens are perfectly aware that Brexit will have on Switzerland" economic and political consequences, he said in a statement Lukas Golder, co-director of gfs.berne.

The British return to shopping, driving out the concerns for Brexit. In July, retail sales in the UK in terms of volume, that is based on the amount of goods purchased, they showed a sharp rise of 1.4% on-month from -0.9% the previous month. The figure was better than expected by analysts who had expected a much more modest increase of 0.2%.

According to the Office for National Statistics, retail sales on year showed an increase of 5.9% compared to + 4.3% unrevised from the previous month. Also in this case the data is higher than the consensus of + 4.2%.