MGI Weekly round-up | 12 January 2018

Stories MGI has been tracking this week:

  • Shell starts drilling another oil well in Albania
  • Croatia’s budget surplus increases
  • Turkish automotive exports rise in 2017

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. This week, we use the MGI platform (TRADE section) to see Turkey’s main export commodities.
 

Shell starts drilling another oil well in Albania 

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell (Shell Upstream Albanian) has started drilling another appraisal well in the Albanian mountain of Shpirag. The drilling is part of an agreement signed between Shell and the Albanian government and was initiated after the company conducted seismic and general geological studies. The well (Shpirag-4) is the fourth drilled by the company in Albania.
 
Albania's oil and gas reserves amount to 220 million barrels and 5.7 billion m3 respectively. In addition, the largest onshore oil field in Europe (Patos-Marinza) is located the south-central part of the country, SeeNews reports.
 

Croatia’s government budget surplus increases

According to the Croatian Ministry of Finance, the central government budget surplus increased to 4.6 billion kuna (€618 million) in the January-October period of 2017 compared to just 1.6 million kuna (€215 thousands) during the same period 2016. Government revenue grew by 4.3%, while spending increased by 1.3%. In October 2017, the budget surplus increased by 1.03 billion kuna compared to the same month of 2016, reaching 1.9 billion kuna (€255 million), SeeNews reports.
 

Turkish automotive exports rise in 2017 

Turkey's automotive exports grew by 19.5% in 2017 compared to the previous year, reaching $28.5 billion. The monthly average during the year was $2.4 billion, while the industry’s share of the nation's total exports was 18%. In addition, 77% of the country's total automotive exports were made to countries of the European Union. The top automotive export destinations were Germany ($4.36 billion), and two Mediterranean countries, Italy ($3.14 billion) and France ($2.91 billion), Financial Tribune reports.
 

Featured content from the MGI data and analysis portal

In this newsletter, we use the TRADE section (LIST VIEW and TREEMAP) of the MGI platform to look at Turkey’s main export products. As can be seen from the first picture, in 2016, the country's main export products were “Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling-stock and parts and accessories thereof”, “Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances, parts thereof” and “Natural or cultured pearls, precious or semi-precious stones, precious metals, metals clad with precious metal and article thereof; imitation jewellery; coin”.
 
In addition to exploring the tradable goods of a country, the MGI platform also allows users to see the countries with which these goods are traded. For example, when examining Turkey's main export category in 2016 – “Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling-stock and parts and accessories thereof" – you will find that these products were mainly exported to Germany, Italy and France (see the second picture below). According to the data of 2017, these countries remained the three main export destinations of the Turkish automotive industry.

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The week in data

Highlights from national statistics releases tracked by MGI this week include:

  • Turkey's IPI in November 2017 increased 0.3% MoM (seasonally and calendar adjusted data) and 7% YoY (calendar adjusted data)
  • Employment in Italy increased 0.3% MoM in November 2017. Unemployment rate stood at 11% (seasonally-adjusted data)
  • Greece's IPI in November 2017 decreased 0.2% MoM (seasonally adjusted data) and increased 0.8% YoY (working day adjusted data)
  • Malta's IPI in November 2017 increased 2.7% vs October 2017 (seasonally adjusted data) and increased 0.5% vs November 2016 (working day adjusted data)
  • Slovenia's IPI in November 2017 increased 0.7% MoM and 9.9% YoY
  • Spain's IPI in November 2017 increased 1% MoM, 4.2% YoY (seasonally and calendar adjusted data) and 4.7% YoY (original data)
  • Employment in Greece decreased by 1,322 in October 2017 vs September 2017. Unemployment rate stood at 20.7% (seasonally adjusted data)

 

Looking ahead

Next week, we expect trade balance and inflation figures for several Mediterranean countries and employment/unemployment figures for Israel and Croatia. MGI’s complete data release schedule can be viewed at our release calendar section.

 

Monday 15 January, 2018:

  • Turkey unemployment rate and employment for October
  • Turkey auto production for December
  • France 3-month, 6-month and 12-month BTF auction
  • Israel inflation rate for December
  • Croatia unemployment rate and employment for 2017Q3

Tuesday 16 January, 2018:

  • France budget balance for November
  • Italy domestic and harmonized inflation for December, final estimates
  • Italy balance of trade for November
  • Spain 6-month and 12-month Letras auction
  • Croatia inflation rate for December
  • Malta harmonized inflation rate for December
  • Israel real GDP for 2017Q3, third estimate
  • Slovenia employment (register data) for November

Wednesday 17 January, 2018:

  • Israel Manufacturing PMI for December
  • Montenegro inflation rate for December
  • Albania balance of trade for December

Thursday 18 January, 2018:

  • Israel inflation expectations for January
  • Spain 3-year, 5-year Bonos auction and 10-year Obligacion auction
  • France 3-year and 5-year BTAN auction
  • Turkey central bank interest rate decision

Friday 19 January, 2018:

  • Spain balance of trade for November
  • Slovenia PPI for December
  • Slovenia employment (detailed register data) for November
  • Italy current account for November
  • Turkey central government debt for December
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