Nobody want a stronger currency

French Min: Euro Strength Takes EUR3 Billion-EUR4 Billion Off 2011 Exports

PARIS -(Dow Jones)- The euro is too strong and will cost France between EUR3 billion and EUR4 billion in exports this year, the French trade minister said Tuesday.

"It is incontestable that the over-valuation of the euro compared to other big currencies harms our exports," Pierre Lellouche told reporters.

He said China accounts for most of France's trade gap--EUR26 billion of last year's EUR51.7 billion deficit.

The trade gap widened to a record EUR56.2 billion in 2008 as the economy recorded three consecutive quarters of contraction that year. After narrowing in 2009, the deficit is set to reach a new high of EUR73.1 billion this year and EUR73.8 billion in 2012, the government said in the 2012 budget published last week.

The budget takes into account the strong euro, anticipating the currency will strengthen to USD1.43 in 2012 from USD1.41 in 2011 after USD1.33 in 2010.

Germany accounted for around EUR15 billion of last year's trade gap, Lellouche said.

But he said German exports and the country's trade surplus shows a strong euro is not the main reason for France's stalling export performance.

"We have a competitiveness deficit. Germany is 10% cheaper than us," he said.

-By William Horobin, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 4017 1737; william.horobin@ dowjones.com

Bank Of England Expands QE By £75 Billion To A Total Of £275 Billion, Keeps Rate Unchanged

Source:  Tyler Durden on 10/06/2011 07:13 -0400 zero hedge

As many expected, the Bank of England has followed in Bernanke's footsteps and proceeded with extra QE, 75 billion extra, or about 25 billion more than consensus - this is the first expansion in the British QE since November 5, 2009 when it did the latest  £25 billion expansion. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning: much more global QE is coming down the line as the "monetary authority" realizes it only has itself and its printers to rely on in a world rapidly reentering recession.

In summary:

• BOE raises asset purchase target to GBP275b
• Will keep scale of asset purchase program under review
• Expects purchases to take 4 months to complete
• Sees GBP1.7b auctions in each maturity sector
• BOE keeps benchmark rate unch. at 0.5%, est. 0.5%
• BOE says inflation likely to rise above 5% next month or so
• Sees inflation falling back sharply in 2012
• Sees inflation undershooting 2% target in medium term
• BOE says margin of slack likely to be greater than expected

Higher Borrowing Means Central Bank to Buy Bonds: India Credit

October 04, 2011, 2:23 AM EDT

By Kartik Goyal

Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- India’s central bank may buy bonds for the first time in nine months to cap rising yields as outflows from national savings accounts forced the government to increase debt sales.

The Reserve Bank of India will probably acquire 500 billion rupees ($10.2 billion) of notes, according to Nomura Holdings Inc. and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. Benchmark 10-year yields were steady at 8.54 percent, the highest level since 2008, after the Finance Ministry said last week it would borrow 32 percent more than its 1.67 trillion rupee target in the six months to March. Yields have climbed 60 basis points in 2011, the most in Asia after Vietnam, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.