Economic News: BMW builds a plant in Hungary, up to 150,000 vehicles a year

BMW builds a plant in Hungary, up to 150,000 vehicles a year

10:54: BMW is building a new car factory in Hungary for one billion euros. The factory located near the city of Debrecen has more than 1,000 employees a year to produce up to 150,000 vehicles with combustion engines, electric and hybrid, the company said Tuesday in Munich. Construction should begin in a little over a year. When the factory goes into service and what BMW models are then manufactured there, is still open, said a spokesman.

"The decision to build a new plant underscores BMW Group's global growth prospects," said CEO Harald Krüger. "After heavy investments in China, Mexico and the United States, we are now strengthening the location of Europe and thus the overall balance of our production between Asia, America and Europe. and Europe. " In Germany alone, BMW is investing more than 1 billion euros this year to modernize its plants and prepare for electromobility.

The competitor Audi is already building engines and vehicles in Hungary. BMW has announced its decision for Debrecen with a very good infrastructure, proximity to the network of suppliers and skilled workforce.

Unemployment rose to 2.355 million in July

10am: The number of unemployed in Germany is in July reached 2,325 million. However, it's the lowest value this month since reunification. Compared with the previous month, there were 49,000 job seekers over, compared with the previous year, the number of men and women unemployed decreased by 193,000, as the number of unemployed 39, announced Tuesday the Federal Agency for Employment (AG) in Nuremberg. Unemployment rate increased by 0.1 point to 5.1%

Unemployment rose in July for seasonal reasons only, said BA boss Detlef Scheele. Adjusted for seasonal variations, the number of job seekers decreased. The corrected seasonal influences, the number of unemployed was 2.38 million. After that, about 6,000 fewer people were out of work last week than in June. The declines were this time mainly in West Germany. Scheele said: "The job market is very favorable, but less buoyant."

Underemployment, which includes people who are currently in training, for example, was about 3.26 million. At the same time, the Federal Agency declared 823,000 job vacancies in July, 72,000 more than a year ago.

According to the most recent data from the Federal Statistical Office, the number of persons employed was in June. 44.94 million – an increase of 28,000 from the previous month. Compared with the previous year, there were 580,000 people in paid employment

The increase was solely due to the increase in the number of jobs subject to social security contributions . According to the projections of the Federal Agency, this increase has been seasonally adjusted from 43,000 from April to May. This meant that 32.88 million people in Germany had recently had a regular job – 746,000 more than a year ago. "After exceptionally strong rises in the winter months, the pace of growth has slowed," he said of the BA.

Lufthansa's profit is slightly down, share plus 5.4%

09:40: Lufthansa has costly integration of parts of Air Berlin and the higher costs of fuel in the second quarter were largely offset by higher ticket prices. Operating profit (Adjusted EBIT) stood at 982 million euros, down 3% from the previous year, the Dax Group announced in Frankfurt on Tuesday. For the current year, CEO Carsten Spohr is still expecting operating earnings to decline only slightly behind the record 3 billion euros in the year. 2017.

The financial market has been well received by the news. In the morning session, Lufthansa's share gained a good five percent.

The incorporation of the rival bankrupt Air Berlin's business pieces made the subsidiary Lufthansa Eurowings but also from the summer to create. Integration costs are expected to rise to around 170 million euros this year. In the first half, the operating loss of the division amounted to 199 million euros. The management is also waiting for the figures for the full year. By 2019, however, the company should become profitable again. The rise in kerosene prices is on the rise at Lufthansa. Although the group largely buys its fuel in advance at fixed conditions, fuel costs for the current year are expected to rise from 5.8 billion euros to 6 billion euros. euros. That's 850 million euros more than the year before. On the other hand, the Board of Directors is in favor of higher ticket prices.

In the first half of the year, average revenues increased by 1.3% in terms of foreign exchange. Lufthansa is now expecting a slight increase for the whole year. Until now, the general management expected a stagnation for the whole of the year 2018. However, Lufthansa again slightly relaxes the planned expansion of its supply of flight. Instead of 8.5%, as expected, it will grow by only 8% this year. In January, the board had even targeted 12%, but this plan was due to the difficult integration of the Air Berlin business and the late delivery of new Airbus medium-haul jets capped in the spring.

In the first half, Lufthansa achieved a turnover of 16 9 billion euros. Adjusted for accounting changes, this corresponds to an increase of about 5%. Net profit increased slightly by 0.7% to 677 million euros. Operating profit, on which the board is primarily oriented, has dropped from just over 3% to just over 1 billion euros.

Japanese central bank eases monetary policy

08.59: Easy monetary policy confirmed and at the same time made it more flexible. As the Bank of Japan announced Tuesday after meeting its interest rate in Tokyo, the short-term deposit rate remains at 0.1%. The interest rate target of 10-year government bonds, which aims to manage long-term interest rates, is also unchanged at zero percent.

However, the central bank now allows the ten-year interest rate to move slightly around its interest rate target. The reason for this is the general rise in interest rates on the capital markets, which has prevented the central bank from meeting its interest rate commitments with precision. In recent weeks, the ten-year rate has risen several times compared to the Bank of Japan's return target of 0.1%. The Bank of Japan intervened on the market several times

Sovereign yields on the Japanese financial market eased after the Fed's decision. Ten-year government bond yields dropped 0.05 percentage points to settle at just under 0.05%. This seems little, but it's a strong move for the Japanese bond market, which is largely dominated by the central bank. The Japanese yen fluctuated visibly in the course, but did not find a clear direction.

The construction boom gives HeidelbergCement buoyancy – share rises before the trade

Tuesday, 31.07.2018, 08.54: The group of building materials HeidelbergCement benefits. However, a strong euro and higher energy costs slowed down. "The good earnings trend in the second quarter marks a clear recovery after the difficult start to the year," said Bernd Scheifele, the company 's boss, Tuesday in Heidelberg

. "We expect a further improvement in business performance in the second half and confirm our forecasts," he added. The stock gained nearly two percent by the deadline.