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The Largest Trade Partners of Japan 2008
The Largest Trade Partners of Japan in 2008 are listed below:
Source: WSJ
China is the largest trade partner of Japan followed by the US and South Korea. Other than the US and Germany, the rest of the top 10 countries that trade with Japan are in Asia. This underscores the importance of the Asian markets for Japanese companies.
Dutch Public Debt Exceeds EU Limit of 60 Percent
The Dutch Public Debt has exceeded the 60 Percent EU Limit for the first six months of this year. The last time this occurred was in 1999. The public debt totalled 365B Euros. This represents a 10% increase from the end of 2008. The Government-Debt-GDP was 61.1%.
Dutch Public Debt
Source: Statistics Netherlands
Why did the public debt grow so fast?
In January, the Dutch government took 80% of all the soured loans and profit of the American mortgage portfolio of the large ING bank. This caused the public debt to increase by about 20B Euros.
It is not just the US where tax revenues are down and government expenditures going up. The Netherlands also has the same problem as noted below.
From Statistics Netherlands:
“Public revenue more than 6 bn euro down
Public revenue over the first half of 2009 was more than 6 bn down on the first six months of last year. Revenue from social contributions, wage and income taxes was about the same as in the first half of 2008. Other tax revenues have fallen dramatically. Revenue from VAT shrank by 1 bn euro. Due to the poor situation on the housing market, revenue from property transfer tax declined by nearly 1 bn euro. Revenue from dividend tax was reduced by 1.5 bn euro. Corporate tax revenue was reduced by 2 bn.
Revenue from capital dropped considerably by more than 1 bn euro. Lower natural gas revenues were partly offset by extra government revenues from capital invested in the financial sector by the end of 2008.
Public expenditure nearly 6 bn euro up
Government expenditure was nearly 6 bn higher than in the first half of 2008. In particular benefits under the Exceptional Medical Expenses Act (AWBZ) and basic health care benefits rose substantially by nearly 3 bn euro. Wage payments, acquisitions, investments and subsidies increased by 1 bn each. The reduction on Dutch payments to the European Union had a positive effect on the government balance sheet, which was brought down by nearly 2 bn euro due to discounts stipulated on EU contributions.”
Gold Vs. Equities Performance in 2008
Gold futures closed above $1,000 an ounce today. Gold is still investors favorite as many are wary of the equity market. Last year when equities worldwide got thrashed gold was the winner. Gold prices soared as investors fled to safety from stocks.
The chart below shows the performance of major country stock markets and gold in 2008:
In many countries gold was up considerably in local prices last year. For example in Russia when the equity market cratered by 68%, gold was up by 25%. In UK, gold skyrocketed by 45% when the FTSE fell by 31%.
Denmark Government Debt and Interest Costs
All the Scandinavian countries have very low debt. The following chart shows the government debt of Denmark:
As the chart shows, in recent years the Danish government debt has fallen significantly From DKK 600 billion in 1997 it fell to DKK 195 billion in 2008.This corresponds to 53% of GDP to 11% of GDP.
On the interest costs side, from DKK 43.5 billion in 1997 it has fellen to DKK 11.6 billion in 2008.This corresponds to a decline of 3.9% of GDP to 0.7% of GDP.
Source: Denmark National Bank
Household Wealth Losses
Household wealth losses in the bear market of 2008 have been horrendous.Trillions of dollars in wealth have been wiped out in many countries particularly in the US,UK and others. The following chart shows the destruction of household assets in the form of financial and housing assets:
Source: IMF
“The losses in household wealth during 2008 were about $11 trillion in the United States ($8.5 trillion in financial assets and $2.5 trillion in housing assets) and were estimated at $1.5 trillion in the United Kingdom ($0.6 trillion in financial assets and $0.9 trillion in housing assets)”
For more details go to: IMF Survey: Households Hit Hard by Wealth Losses
Road Accident Deaths in Select Countries
The World Health Organization conducted the first ever study of road safety in various countries and released a report titled Global status report on road safety.
The following are some key takeaways from this report:
1.While the number of registered vehicles are high in high income countries, the most number of traffic deaths occur in low and middle income countries.
Car-Deaths-by-Country
2. The number of road deaths per 100,000 population was highest in the USA among select developed countries
Road-Death-for-Select-Countries
3. Less than 50% of countries have have a child restraint law.
More information can be found in the WHO site at:
http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2009/en/index.html
