MGI Weekly round-up | June 23rd 2017

Stories MGI has been tracking this week:

  • Macron secures majority, French markets respond with gains
  • Italy hosts G7 transportation meeting
  • Egypt declares 3-month extension to state of emergency

And as always, we feature content from the MGI data and analysis platform, a summary of the week’s key statistical releases, and a look to the week ahead in data.

Macron secures majority, French markets respond with gains
President Emmanuel Macron won a commanding majority in France's parliamentary election on Sunday, securing a strong mandate to implement his pro-business plan. His party, La République En Marche!, took 308 seats in the 577-seat parliament. Macron’s allies, MoDem, took an additional 42 seats providing greater strength to push through his agenda. With his mandate confirmed, the president shook up cabineton Wednesday, putting in place several ministers from business backgrounds outside politics.
 
The anticipation of pro-business reforms sent France’s blue-chip and bank stocks soaring on Monday. Commentators were quick to speculate that France has the potential to become the strongest economy in Europe.

Italy hosts G7 transportation meeting
Italy’s duties under the G7 presidency continued this week, as it hosted the G7 transport ministers on Tuesday and Thursday. This year’s theme was “Rediscovering the social value of infrastructures.” Transport ministers were asked to present their experiences and best practices for contributing positively to economic, environmental, or social transport infrastructures.  The ministers adopted a joint declaration confirming their commitment to investing in high-quality infrastructure to support sustainable economic growth.

Egypt declares 3-month extension to state of emergency
On Thursday, Egypt’s government approved President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's proposal to extend a national state of emergency for three months. MGI previously reported the initial 3-month declaration back in April. The action is in response to attacks by Islamic State, particularly against Christian civilians. The attacks have intensified in recent months with several church bombings.

The MGI.online data and analysis portal in focus
With the G7 Transport Meeting wrapping up, it may be interesting to see how Mediterranean countries’ transport infrastructure investments match up. This can easily be assessed using MGI.online’s World Bank statistics map explorer (available at https://www.mgi.online/wb-focus/). By selecting the 'Quality of port infrastructure' we see that Spain, Malta, and France lead the way, with G7 host Italy ranking ninth out of twenty.

The week in data
Here is a selection of the week’s most market-moving data, tracked at MGI.online and posted in real time to MGI’s twitter account (@mgionline): 

  • RPI inflation in Malta was roughly unchanged in May, at 1.4 per cent http://bit.ly/2rJ5Fxc
  • France’s business confidence index fell slightly in June (from 109 to 108) but sits well above its historical average of 100 http://bit.ly/2sTHW0D. Detailed final estimates for France's quarterly national accounts in Q1 2017 were also released by Insee, available at http://bit.ly/2rJoX5j 
  • Spain's industrial turnover index fell 0.2% month-over-month in April 2017, but is up 7.6% versus April 2016 http://bit.ly/2sYgU8X 
  • The turnover index in Greece rose 10.7% year-over-year. The index measures monthly activity of the industrial sector http://bit.ly/2sRCPyw. Greece's current account deficit halved in April 2017 http://bit.ly/2s2eNfI

Looking ahead
This week will see a number of jurisdictions report final GDP estimates for 2017 Q1, as well as business and consumer confidence estimates for June. MGI’s complete data release schedule can be viewed at https://www.mgi.online/release-calendar/.
 
Monday 26 June, 2017:

  • Spain – producer price index (PPI) for May
  • Montenegro – industrial production index (IPI) for May
  • Egypt –  real GDP for 2017 Q1

 
Tuesday 27 June, 2017:

  • France – unemployment benefit claims for May
  • Italy – consumer and business confidence for June
  • Italy – consumer price index (CPI) and harmonised index of consumer prices (HCPI) for June, preliminary estimate
  • Italy – PPI for May 


Wednesday 28 June, 2017:

  • France – consumer confidence for June
  • Spain – retail sales MoM for May


Thursday 29 June, 2017:

  • Spain – business confidence for June
  • Greece – business confidence for June
  • Cyprus – IPI for April


Friday 30 June, 2017:

  • France – inflation rate YoY Prel for June, PPI MoM for May,  household consumption MoM for May
  • Spain – current account for April
  • Greece – PPI YoY for May and retail sales YoY for April
  • Albania – real GDP for 2017 Q1
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