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HONG KONG, Feb. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Next week, some key economic numbers in Hong Kong are released. This will help determine the health of Hong Kong's economy at the start of 2012. January CPI numbers are released on Monday 20th, followed by employment data on Tuesday 21st. Economic performance in Hong Kong continued to show signs of moderation over the second half of 2011 as the growth momentum slowed amid the global downturn and ongoing eurozone fears. Housing market sentiment has turned cautious over recent months due to several rounds of macro-prudential measures and a deteriorating external environment. House prices have continued to rise, but at a slower pace. The results of the residential mortgage survey for December from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority indicated that the number of mortgage approvals continued the downward trend, declining 15% (from 4,885 in November to 4,158). Alongside this, new loan applications fell by 15% to 6,039. These findings confirm that the sentiment is softening in response to the decline in transactions. Looking forward, transaction volume and prices are likely to continue easing, reflecting the effectiveness of cooling measures and a softer growth outlook.
Real size of Spain's residential bad loan problem
Official Spanish mortgage approvals data for December are due on Thursday 23rd. The approvals data is choppy, but the monthly count is currently running at just over 45k. This is close to the lowest level on record (the series began in January 2003) and around 75% below the January 2007 peak of 180k.
US housing activity shows modest uptick
Apart from the lack of finance for potential homeowners, the largest factor holding back demand in the housing market has been the weak labour market. The latest non-farm payrolls report released this month showed the economy adding 224k jobs in January. Added to this, the upward revision of 60k jobs added in November and December brings the average for the last three months above 200k. Contrast this to the preceding 6 month period, where the average number of jobs added was 100k a month and one can see the pick-up in job creation.
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