German producer prices, UK house prices and M4, and Canadian leading index all up

German retail sales may have been down 0.8 percent in real terms in December, but other data show that the world economy is still running hot.

In Germany itself, producer prices were up strongly in January.

Producer prices in Germany rose 1.2 pct in January from December and rose 5.6 pct from a year earlier, the Federal Statistics Office said.

In the UK, house prices are up.

In further evidence of a firming housing market, property web site Rightmove said asking prices rose 2.7 percent in the early January to mid-February survey period compared with the prior survey, taking the average asking price to 201,600 pounds.

But the figures are not adjusted to account for the seasonal recovery in the property market at the start of the year. In annual terms, asking prices rose 4.0 percent compared with a gain of 3.6 percent year-on-year gain in the prior survey.

The monthly rise marked the highest asking price and first move above 200,000 since the survey began in August 2001, Rightmove said.

M4 grew at a double-digit annual rate in January.

The Bank of England said M4 money, a broad measure of money supply, increased by 0.5 pct in January from December on a seasonally adjusted basis, for an 11.7 pct year-on-year rise.

M4 lending, though, was well below expectations.

Meanwhile, M4 lending during the month increased by 8.9 bln stg, well below expectations for a rise of 23.0 bln and compared with a rise of 23.9 bln stg the previous month.

Across the Atlantic in Canada, the economic outlook appears good.

The composite leading index grew 0.5% in January, almost matching its 17-month high gain of 0.6% in December. Very strong gains in the stock market and housing starts at the start of the year gave a boost to the overall index. These increases offset continued sluggish export demand for manufactured goods.

But the airlines industry reminds us that good times are often followed by bad times.

The head of the world's airline club warned the industry against the danger of overcapacity on Monday, ahead of an air show at which carriers are expected to add to the record aircraft orders they booked last year.

Airlines might need more capacity as markets such as India rapidly expanded, but the industry had to learn from earlier periods in which it found itself with too many planes, said Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association.

"The industry cannot afford the negative impact of overcapacity," Bisignani told a conference in Singapore a day before the scheduled opening of the Singapore air show.