-->Global Reflation Watch:


January 10 - The Wall Street Journal (Gregory Yuka Hayashi): “A proliferation of real-estate investment funds, both foreign and home-grown, is fueling intensive bidding for choice properties in Tokyo and beyond, setting off a small revival in top end of Japan’s real-estate market. The rebound, which comes after the epic 1990s slide in land prices that helped trigger Japan’s long economic slump, is a classic case of too much money chasing too few properties…. Buyers are popping up with armfuls of cash raised through private investment funds and publicly traded real-estate investment trusts, as well as with Japanese bank loans available at rock-bottom interest rates.”


January 13 - Bloomberg (Nerys Kathleen Chu): “Tokyo office vacancies dropped in December to their lowest in 28 months… The vacancy rate declined for a fifth straight month to 6.1 percent from 6.44 percent in November…”


January 13 - Bloomberg (Keiko Ujikane): “Japan’s 10-year bond yield may rise to 2.5 percent in 2005, the highest since 1997, as a six-year bout of deflation the world's second-biggest economy comes to an end, according to Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co.”


January 10 - Bloomberg (Maher Chmaytelli): “Egypt’s Suez Canal, the waterway linking the Red and Mediterranean seas, reported record revenue for 2004, in part as rising energy demand led to increased shipments on oil tankers. Revenue rose 18 percent to $3.09 billion, the most since its opening in 1869…”


January 10 - Bloomberg (Theophilos Argitis and Kevin Carmichael): “Canadian building permits jumped 9.3 percent to C$5 billion ($4 billion) in November, more than expected, to the second highest level on record.”


January 14 - Bloomberg (Jeremy van Loon): “Western European car sales rose 7.7 percent in December, leading to the first annual gain in three years as Toyota Motor Corp. and Asian competitors introduced new products and Volkswagen AG offered incentives to boost demand…”


January 13 - Bloomberg (Brian Swint): “The German economy, Europe’s largest, returned to growth in 2004 after the longest period of stagnation since World War II as an increase in exports overcame a slump in consumer spending. Gross domestic product rose 1.7 percent after failing to grow more than 0.8 percent in the previous three years… The fastest global expansion in nearly three decades fueled Germany’s recovery from the contraction in 2003.”


January 10 - Bloomberg (Ben Holland): “Turkey’s industrial production rose 9.6 percent in November from the same month of 2003, as rising exports helped drive economic growth.”


January 13 - Bloomberg (Victoria Batchelor): “Australian consumer confidence in January surged to its highest in almost 11 years, spurred by rising share prices, cheaper gasoline and increased employment. The consumer confidence index rose 4.2 percent from December to 123.5, the highest since June 1994…”


January 13 - Bloomberg (Maria Ermakova): “Russia’s foreign currency and gold reserves rose to a record of $124.6 billion, gaining for the second-straight week, the central bank said.”


January 11 - Market News: “Industrial output in Mexico rebounded from a disappointing October, to jump 5.4% in November compared to the same month of 2003, as manufacturing output increased 5.8%... It was the 12th consecutive increase for the headline number…”