UK property stabilising

There has been a lot of talk about inflation lately. And no wonder; it's hard to keep prices down, especially UK property prices, it seems.

House prices see first rise since June
Average asking prices on homes rose for the first time since June from mid-September to mid-October, adding to growing evidence that the property market is stabilising, according to a survey on Monday.

Property web site Rightmove said house prices rose by 0.5 percent in its September 11 to October 8 survey compared with the previous period, the biggest rise since April...

House prices fall at slowest pace in 14mths-RICS
House prices fell at their slowest pace in over a year in the three months to September and are expected to rise for the first time in 1-1/2 years in the next three months, a report showed on Tuesday.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its seasonally adjusted house prices balance for the three months to September improved to -21 -- its highest in 14 months -- from an upwardly revised -25 in the three months to August...

The US economy also appears to be buoyant, at least in the New York area, according to the October Empire State Manufacturing Survey. The general business conditions index fell but remained positive at 12.1. The new orders index jumped from 11.6 in September to 24.9 in October. The prices paid index rose from 53.9 to 57.3, near record highs. The prices received index also rose from 10.1 to 15.6. The future general business conditions index, however, fell from 38.1 in September to 32.6 in October, although future price indexes remained high, with the future prices paid index at 71.9 and the future prices received index at 34.4.

However, things don't look so good for Singapore's economy, which got a double dose of bad news yesterday.

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports fell a seasonally adjusted 3.3 percent from August, trade agency International Enterprise said, against forecasts for a gain of 2.7 percent.

Retail sales fell a surprising 2.3 percent in August on a seasonally adjusted basis, well off expectations for a month-on-month rise of 2.0 percent forecast in a Reuters poll.