Euro area reports positive data

The news from the euro area continues to be good.

Bloomberg reports that German exports rose in June.

German exports rose more than economists forecast in June as the global recovery helped bolster an export-led expansion in Europe’s largest economy.

Sales abroad, adjusted for working days and seasonal changes, rose 3.8 percent from May, when they increased a revised 7.9 percent, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. Economists forecast a gain of 1.5 percent, the median of 11 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey shows. Imports rose 1.9 percent from May, when they jumped 13.7 percent.

And investors in the euro area have become much more confident, according to another Bloomberg report.

European investor confidence surged to the highest in more than 2 1/2 years in August as demand from emerging economies brightened the outlook, the Sentix research institute said.

An index measuring sentiment in the 16-nation euro region increased to 8.5 from minus 1.3 in July, Limburg, Germany-based Sentix said in an e-mailed statement today. That’s the highest since December 2007. A gauge of current business conditions climbed to 16.5 from 2 in the previous month, while a sub- indicator of expectations increased to 0.75 from minus 4.5.

Just outside the euro area, though, the UK reported weaker house prices and retail sales. From Reuters:

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' house price balance fell to -8 in the three months to July -- the first negative reading in a year -- from a downwardly revised +8 in the three months to June...

A survey from the British Retail Consortium, meanwhile, showed the value of sales last month was just 0.5 percent higher than a year ago on a like-for-like basis, less than half the 1.2 percent growth recorded in June.

Meanwhile, there was more evidence on Monday that China is cooling. Bloomberg reports that property price appreciation has slowed.

China’s property prices climbed at the slowest pace in six months in July as the government clamped down on speculation to prevent asset bubbles and keep housing affordable.

Prices in 70 major cities climbed 10.3 percent from a year earlier, the statistic bureau’s newspaper, China Information News, reported today. That was less than an 11.4 percent increase in June and the median estimate of 10.5 percent in a Bloomberg News survey of eight economists.

AFP/CNA reports that auto sales in China have also slowed.

Growth in China's auto sales slowed in July from the previous month, an industry group said Monday, as demand for vehicles in the world's biggest market continued to soften.

Total vehicle sales rose 14.4 percent year-on-year to 1.24 million units in July, the first time this year that the growth rate was below 20 percent, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on its website.