Eurozone economy grows twice as fast as UK's for second straight quarter

The euro zone economy confirmed a robust expansion in the second quarter of the year, growing twice as much as Britain for the second consecutive quarter, preliminary estimates released by the European Union's statistics agency showed on Tuesday.

The reading confirmed the trend begun this year as the 19-country currency bloc consolidates its recovery while Britain starts to feel the negative impact of its decision to quit the European Union.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the euro zone increased 0.6 per cent on the quarter, after a slightly downwardly revised 0.5 per cent rise in the first quarter, Eurostat's data showed.

In the March-June period, Britain's economic output grew by 0.3 per cent on the quarter, edging up from a sluggish rate of 0.2 per cent in the first three months of the year.

Britain's slowdown comes after the country showed robust growth last year, outgrowing the euro zone in the last three quarters.

The loss of pace coincides with the beginning of divorce talks with the EU in March and increased prospects of no access to the EU market after Brexit for Britain-based companies.

Meanwhile, the euro zone economy has picked up speed, bolstered by higher business optimism, strong domestic consumption and decreasing unemployment, which in June reached its lowest level since 2009.
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Wall Street records fresh highs on Yellen's rate hike views at testimony

US stocks opened higher on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said interest rates hikes would be gradual and will not have to rise much further to reach neutral rate.

Yellen, in a prepared testimony to be delivered to Congress at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT), said the economy is healthy enough to absorb further gradual rate increases and the slow wind down of the Federal Reserve's massive bond portfolio.

The testimony depicted an economy that, while growing slowly, continued to add jobs, benefited from steady household consumption and a recent jump in business investment.

Investors and some Fed officials, concerned with the recent dip in inflation, have been wanting to see a surer progress toward the central bank's goal of 2 percent inflation.

Yellen ascribed the inflation drop to "a few unusual reductions in certain categories of prices" and said it would eventually drop out of the calculation.

"I'm not very surprised by Yellen's comments. She's been pretty steadfast that we're raising rates... The market is liking the fact that she's seeing economic growth," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.

"What the Fed's doing and she's doing is continuing the case for raising rates."

The U.S central bank will also issue its Beige Book at 2 p.m. ET, a compendium of anecdotes on the health of the economy. The Fed's next policy meeting is on July 25-26.

At 9:38 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 133.61 points, or 0.62 percent, at 21,542.68, the S&P 500 was up 16.18 points, or 0.66 percent, at 2,441.71.
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Consumption, Employment, Growth: Three-point agenda for Budget 2017

Latest News - The Budget 2017-2018 is not only being advanced by a month but also amalgamates the Railway budget with the Union Budget. Coming in the backdrop of impending election in the states of UP and Punjab and in the aftermath of demonetisation, we believe consumption, employment and growth could be key themes of the budget this year.

While demonetisation has made a bold start by channelizing the idle cash in the economy into the banking system, it needs to be followed through with measures to improve tax compliance and initiatives to boost the digital payment economy.

We believe it is an opportune time to boost consumption demand and business sentiment, which has shown some weakness following demonetisation. A hike in the personal tax limits can be a measure which helps towards this end. The government has rightly focused on boosting the low cost housing segment with interest subsidies and we believe that some  tax exemptions   on (Read More)

India's oil consumption to be fastest in world by 2035: Survey

Latest News - Having pipped Japan to become world's third largest oil consumer, India's oil consumption growth will be the fastest among all major economies by 2035, BP Statistical Review of World Energy said.

India, Asia's second-biggest energy consumer since 2008, had in 2015 overtaken Japan as the world's third-largest oil consuming country behind US and China.

"We project that India's energy consumption grows the fastest among all major economies by 2035. As a result, the country remains import dependent despite increases in production," it said.

While energy consumption will grow by 4.2 per cent per annum — faster than all major economies in the world — India's consumption growth of (Read More)