171bn European Union

Fundamental Analysis EUR "The decline in euro-area December retail sales confirms our view that private consumption is likely to have fallen in the fourth quarter" - James Ashley, senior European economist at RBC Capital Markets Euro zone retail sales declined unexpectedly in December, said the European Union's statistics office Eurostat on Friday. Retail sales fell 0.4 per cent from November after declining by the same amount in October. USD "The report was much better than expected in terms of indicating fundamental strength in the economy" - Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics The number of Americans, who have found a job in January rose to nine-month high of 243,000, said the Labor Department on Friday, pushing unemployment rate lower to 8.3 per cent, the lowest ...