Euro car sales on upward trend
The eurozone economy is expected to shrink by 0.4 per cent this year, according to the IMF, and households are meant to be watching the pennies/euros. Yet, car sales in the European Union rose 1.2 per cent in November, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, the third increase in as many months. That appears to establish a trend, and one, which, given the local economy is forecast to grow next year, should continue into 2014. True, Germany (a bad month for BMW), France and Italy all fell, but Spain grew 15 per cent - driven by incentive schemes - Portugal 23 per cent, the Netherlands over a third and the UK another 7 per cent.
Mortgage indebtedness in focus
Britain's biggest banks have made publicly available a vast data set on the nation's debts in a "major move for transparency". The Council of Mortgage Lenders has published on its website a breakdown of all outstanding mortgage debt by postcode, while the British Bankers' Association has issued the equivalent data on personal loans and small-business lending. The data sets' strength is their granularity - you can type your postcode into the spreadsheet and it will tell you how indebted the area is. The chart gives a very top-level view. There are few surprises: mortgage debt is concentrated in London and the South East, where house prices are highest. More interestingly will be changes in indebtedness over time; the data sets will be updated quarterly.
Footfall falters
Footfall at UK shops in November fell 2.9 per cent compared with the same period the previous year. That was slightly worse than the three-month average of 2.7 per cent between September and November. Over this period, high streets were the worst affected, reporting a 4.2 per cent slump, while footfall in out-of-town locations and shopping centres fell 2.1 per cent an 1 per cent respectively. The trend wasn't just peculiar to less affluent areas regions - there were fewer shoppers across the UK, including Greater London. However, Helen Dickinson, director-general of the British Retail Consortium, says despite the slow start to the festive season, footfall has been building since the end of November and is set to continue. For retailers, she adds, this means there's "still all to play for".
