Europe

The European car market continues to grow. Cars registered in April in EU and EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland) were 1,318,820 cars (9% increase on April 2015). According to ACEA, the European Association of Manufacturers, in the first four months in 2016 are 5,251,757 deliveries (+ 8.3% on the same period of 2015). In Italy, registrations in April recorded + 11.5% better than France (+ 7.1%), Germany (+ 8.4%) and the UK (+ 2%), while in Spain there was an increase of 21.2%.

Fca also continues to run: 89 590 registrations in the EU and EFTA in April (+ 13.6% on 2015, compared to + 9% of the market) .The share rises from 6.5 to 6.8% becoming the fourth manufacturer group for sales volumes in the month.

The Gross Domestic Product of Germany appears to be growing, thanks to growth in all components of domestic demand: private consumption and public investment. The estimate by the Federal German Statistical Office (Destatis), today released the preliminary. According to Destatis, the German GDP will register a growth of 0.7% qoq, compared to + 0.3% in the prior quarter, the best performance since the first quarter of 2014, while on an annual basis is expected to expand by 1,6% after + 2.1% reported previously. Exports, however, was an inhibiting factor because imports grew less.

The tax factor is becoming an increasingly important component of the competitiveness of a country, important for attracting investment and promoting economic growth. On this issue the Impresalavoro Centro Studi di Udine has published a study in which, calculated an index of freedom fiscal 2016, which takes account of seven different indicators to assess the "burden", not only financial, taxation in the 28 countries of EU and Switzerland. For the realization, the Study Centre has sought the collaboration of researchers from ten European countries (including the Liberales Institut of Zurich).

The exit of Britain from the EU would trigger a ” prolonged period of high uncertainty ”, with negative consequences for economic growth of the country, this is the summary of the IMF report presented in London by the Director Christine Lagarde.

Among the consequences ” negative and substantial ” which listed Lagarde there are the depreciation of the pound, the decline in investment, market volatility, with direct repercussions on employment. ” In any country have gone in the past six months, all the leaders have asked me about the economic consequences of a Brexit ”, Lagarde said, stressing that the Fund does not intend to enter the political debate on the referendum.

Zurich Insurance has achieved in the first quarter 2016 net profit attributable to shareholders of 875 million dollars (851 million francs), down 28% from a year ago.

Operating profit (Business Operating Profit, BOP) fell by 16% to 1.09 billion dollars. A decrease in the volume of premiums collected, decreased by 6% over one year to 17.59 billion dollars, the insurance group announced today. Own funds (-1%) fell below $ 31 billion, while the combined ratio, ie the ratio between costs and premiums, worsened slightly to stand at 97.7%.

At the end of April 2016 Swiss unemployment fell by 0.1% compared with March, to stand at 3.5%. With the regional employment offices (Urc), are enrolled 149’540 unemployed, 5’784 less than in the previous month.

The data published today by the Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), however, show that, compared with April of the previous year, the unemployment rate increased by 6% or 8’409 units.

In Ticino, the unemployment rate at the end of April stood at 3.6% decreasing by 0.3 points from the previous month. In contrast to the general situation in Switzerland, this value is lower than that recorded last year (-0.1 percentage points). On average over the past 12 months were 6’041 registered unemployed amounted to a 3.8% rate, which is less than the annual average value for 2014 and equal to that of 2015.

Unicredit reports first quarter 2016 with a net profit of 406 million euro (-20.8% compared to the same period of 2015, + 165% on the fourth quarter 2015). The figure is above the expectations of analysts who had expected a profit of 379 million. "The realization of the strategic plan is on schedule: both are already tangible results related to reducing costs, both those related to the digital transformation of the bank".

"Never thought to leave, even in the most critical moments", so Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni said in an interview with the Italian newspaper L’Avvenire, regarding a possible abandonment of Libya.
"Eni provides 100% of the gas for electricity generation and 50% for domestic users," he added Descalzi. "We guarantee the energy to all parties, but especially to the entire population. If we left, we do a disservice to the country."