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French consumer confidence is still very low, but gains a point in February, according to figures from INSEE. The morale of French households increased very slightly.

French consumer confidence has improved slightly in February. The indicator that measures it wins a point from January to climb to 82, a continued low level, INSEE announced Friday.

This is the second consecutive month of rise of this index, which had declined in December to its lowest level since December 2008, 80 points (against a long-term average of 100).

The French are less pessimistic because of a slight improvement in their moral outlook on their personal finances (2 points) and the overall standard of living in France (4 points).  

Households are also slightly less pessimistic about the evolution of unemployment (down one point in the index, 64) even though they "are almost as many as in January to anticipate an increase", said INSEE in a statement.

The European Central Bank will redistribute to the central banks of the euro area the benefits of its Greek bonds held as part of the bond buyback program launched in May 2010, said a source senior within the euro area.

The Institute of Frankfurt bought about 38 billion euros of Greek debt under the program says SMP (Securities Market Programme) and these securities are now worth about 50 billion euros. Forego these profits would reduce Greece's debt.

This former railroad 55 years succeeds Jacques neighbor to the presidency of reformist union.

Louis Philippe, 55, Friday officially took the presidency of the CFTC, at the end of the 51st Congress of the Confederation of Christian, the union announced in a statement. Pascale Cotton, 47, including the issue of pensions specialist, became general secretary of the CFTC and Bernard Sagez treasurer.

Elected for three years, Louis Philippe, a former railroad worker in Alsace, succeeds Jacques Voisin, he was number two. The office has also confederal three Vice-Presidents Jean-Louis Deroussen, Michel and Joseph Thouvenel Coquillion and a deputy secretary-general Pierre Mencas. At this congress, the CFTC voted to maintain its independence and its Christian values ​​despite the law of representation that darkens the horizon.

"The CFTC because it is meaningful and that can provide the link to our society's social cohesion that is lacking becomes itself a credible solution for the workers and their families," argued Louis Philippe ended Congress.

The Franco-Belgian bank Dexia said Wednesday it has decided to increase the capital of its French subsidiary Dexia Credit Local (DCL) after write-downs that the group had to save his Greek government bonds.

Dexia had to spend a total depreciation of 2.3 billion euros 2.9 billion exposure to Greece following the Greek debt restructuring agreed by the European Union with the private sector.

In total, Dexia said in the first nine months of the year, the impact of disposals, depreciation and provisions on its books reached 10.513 billion euros.

INTERIM STATEMENT

Dexia has not released financial results Wednesday, strictly speaking, but "an interim statement" taking stock of its financial position following the split of the current group.

First victim of bank scale of the crisis of European sovereign debt, Dexia should remain ultimately in the form of a holding company listed in Brussels which will combine the activities of financial services to the public sector in France, Spain, Italy and Germany.

The ounce of gold has risen to 1921.17 dollars. The precious metal is more than ever its safe haven role in the crisis.

The gold price broke a new record high Tuesday, rising to 1,921.17 dollars per ounce to 6:15 GMT, more than ever playing its role as a safe haven when markets are again in turmoil. Its previous record high was recorded on August 23, to 1913.50 dollars per ounce.

Gold jumped $ 90 in less than three days, boosted particularly by the disappointing figures on employment in the United States, which have strengthened concerns about the strength of the world's largest economy and stock markets plunged.

"Insurance against uncertainty"

Renewed concern about sovereign debt in the eurozone and the strength of European banks also helped drive up the price, analysts noted."Faced with a scenario back in recession (the United States and Europe), gold should strengthen its attractiveness to investors and is seen as a form of insurance against the continuing uncertainty" in the economic environment has Robin reminded Bhar, analyst at Credit Agricole.

The yellow metal, whose intrinsic value is backed by any issuer, is considered a good shield against the volatility of the stock exchanges, currencies and bonds.

DIA, the company split from discount stores with Carrefour, reported Tuesday a 10% increase in underlying profits in the first half, strong growth in emerging markets offsetting difficulties in its main markets of France and Spain.

The Spanish group, which made its IPO last month, has reported a gross operating profit (EBITDA) of 233.8 million euros.

The eight analysts polled by Reuters expected a profit of between 217 and 236 million euros.

The action DIA opened up 3.18% to about 2.73 euros.

The stock fell nearly 23% since the IPO of 5 July, amid fears about consumer spending in Spain, France and Portugal, where the group achieved in 2010 over three quarters of its sales.

Sales of DIA, which operates over 6,400 stores in eight countries, emerged up 2.5% to 4.79 billion euros in the first half.

Sales at stores open at least a year jumped 14.4% in emerging markets and increased 0.2% in Spain and Portugal, offsetting a decline of 6.4% in France.

The EBITDA margin increased 30 basis points to 4.9%.

The group said it maintained its full-year, which increased sales by 4% and an increase of 6.5% of adjusted earnings.

Carrefour, the first European distributor, launched last month a warning on its earnings because of its poor performance in France. It must publish its interim results on Wednesday morning.

European countries can not borrow at the same rate of interest without common fiscal policy, said Saturday the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble.

"Until we mutualisons not our financial policy we can not have a uniform interest rate. The interest rate differential is an incentive to have a strong economy or a punishment if you head hurt," said Wolfgang Schäuble.

"So the question is, how can we gradually promote political integration.We can not pool the interest rates, "he added.

The creation of bonds issued jointly by the countries of the euro area, some observers and officials consider one of the possible remedies to the debt crisis, was rejected Tuesday by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel during their meeting in Paris.

The head of the French government and German Chancellor nevertheless proposed a strengthening of the economic governance of the euro area and some officials believe they open the way for Eurobonds.

European shares ended Tuesday's session on their largest decline in 11 months, progress on the U.S. debt was largely overshadowed by fears of a slowing global economy and the contagion of the debt crisis to Italy.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 1.80% (19.26 points) to 1048.71 points, its lowest closing level since the end of August 2010.

In Paris the CAC 40 index yielded 1.82% (65.26 points) to 3522.79 points, its lowest closing level since Aug. 31, 2010.

The benchmark index of the Milan stock exchange has meanwhile dropped 2.53%, reaching its lowest level in 27 months in the wake of the banks heavily exposed to the Italian debt, including UniCredit, which lost 5.77% and Intesa Sanpaolo, which lost 5.24%.

"The fear is that the market returns to the world recession in the euro area, it is the peripheral markets will suffer the most," said Alessandro Giansanti, strategist for ING in Amsterdam.

Cyclical stocks have accused the heaviest losses.The Stoxx European banking stocks fell 2.54% and 2.61% mineral.

BNP has come down by 2.46% after announcing a profit below expectations in the second quarter, particularly penalized by a provision of 534 million euros in Greece's debt.

French industrial production rose 2.0% in May after two months of decline due mainly to the impact of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, a rebound well above expectations reassuring when the confidence of heads of business declines.

Manufacturing output, which is to say, but including non-energy food, rose 1.5%, state statistics released Monday by INSEE.

Twenty economists surveyed by Reuters on average expected a 0.5% increase in industrial production, and their estimates ranged from -0.2% to 1.0%.

The decline in industrial production in April, initially amounted to 0.3%, was revised to -0.5% and the increase in manufacturing output to 0.1% against 0.2% last month announced .In March, industrial production fell by 0.8% as manufacturing.

This decrease was notably driven by disruptions in the supply chain of some sectors caused by the disaster of March 11 in Japan and their impact on nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

Disturbances that seem to gradually fade away: in the car, particularly affected, the production increased by 2.5% in May after falling 4.6% in March and 2.6% in April.

The detailed statistics in May also showed a rebound of 2.3% of the production of electrical, electronic and computer, and 1.4% in other industries, which include textiles and leather (1.3%) , chemicals (+0.3%) or plastics (+2.2%).

POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE 2ND QUARTER

Energy production has amplified this trend, increasing by 5.7% in May while she was down 4.3% in April, with rising temperatures.

French industry and follows the same trajectory as the German: the other side of the Rhine, the business sector grew by 1.2% in May after falling 0.8% in April, a bounce him also significantly greater than anticipated.

The Minister of Economy, Baroin, welcomed the figure of French industry, saying in a statement that it "testifies to the strength of economic recovery in France."He reiterated in the wake growth forecast of 2% of the government for all of 2011.

The improvement which has benefited the industry in May, however, could be short-lived if we are to believe the latest surveys of business leaders.

PMI purchasing managers in the industry has declined in June to return to its lowest level since August 2009 and the business climate indicator for the Bank of France declined by four points.

The contribution of industry to growth in the second quarter should still be positive.

"The carry-over of industrial production for the second quarter was 0.4% a quarter over quarter in May," said Frédérique Cerisier, economist at BNP Paribas in a research note."In manufacturing, the achievements reached 0.8% after 3.3% in the first quarter."

Parallel to the industrial sector, construction activity fell 1.0% in May after rising 1.3% the previous month. It was up 3.3% on the quarter compared to the previous three months.

Prices of agricultural commodities are expected to remain higher in 2011-2020 than in the previous decade, but less than in 2010-2011, according to a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO ) and the OECD published Friday.

"The prices of commodities should not keep the high level reached in early 2011 but are projected in real terms, an average higher than the previous decade," we read in this report.

The study reported an average 20% for cereals (maize) and 30% for meat (poultry) in the period 2011-2020.

The authors note that "if prices remain high for a long time, it may be more difficult to meet the global goals of food security and poor consumers are therefore more at risk of malnutrition."