Value of Canada building permits up 20.2% in May - Reuters News

June 29 (Reuters) - The value of Canadian building permits rose by 20.2% in May from April, Statistics Canada said on Monday. This is the largest percentage increase since March 2009, as coronavirus restrictions relaxed in Ontario, Quebec,and Prince Edward Island.

The residential sector saw higher intentions for both the single-family and multi-family components, with single-family permits up a record 37.5%. The commercial component led the rise in the non-residential sector. The value of building permits were up in five provinces, with Quebec recording the largest value increase.

Month on month (%)

                    May   Apr(rev)  Apr(prev)

Total            +20.2   -15.4      -17.1

Residential      +18.7   -11.5      -14.2

Nonresidential   +22.9   -21.9      -21.9

NOTE: All figures are seasonally adjusted.

Canada May producer prices up 1.2% on meat, energy - Reuters News

June 29 (Reuters) - Producer prices in Canada rose by 1.2% in May from April on higher prices for meat, fish, and dairy products, as well as energy and petroleum products, Statistics Canada said on Monday.

The rise followed a 2.3% decrease in April. Raw materials prices were up 16.4% in May, and were down 24.3% on the year.

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT PRICES (pct change)

                        Month-on-month             Year-on-year

                   May   Apr(rev)  Apr(prev)    May   Apr(rev)  Apr(prev)

total            +1.2    -2.3      -2.3       -4.9    -6.0      -6.0

ex energy/petrol +0.8    +0.1      +0.1       +1.6    +0.5      +0.5

RAW MATERIALS PRICE INDEX (pct change)

                        Month-on-month             Year-on-year

                   May   Apr(rev)  Apr(prev)    May   Apr(rev)  Apr(prev)

total           +16.4   -13.4     -13.4      -24.3   -36.6     -36.7

ex crude energy  +1.8    -0.9      -0.9       -1.1    -3.7      -4.0

U.S. pending home sales jump a record 44.3% in May - Reuters News

WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) - Contracts to buy U.S. previously owned homes rebounded by the most on record in May, suggesting the housing market was starting to turn around after being hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic along with the rest of the economy.

The National Association of Realtors said on Monday its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed last month, surged 44.3% last month, the largest increase since the series started in 2001, to 99.6.

Still, contracts remained below their level of 111.4 in February before nonessential businesses were shuttered in a bid to slow the spread of the respiratory illness, almost grounding the economy to a halt.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast pending home contracts, which become sales after a month or two, rebounding 18.9% in May. Pending home sales fell 5.1% from a year ago.

Home resales tumbled to a more than 9-1/2-year low in May. Economists believe the housing market could emerge more quickly from the recession, which started in February, thanks to historic low interest rates.

Applications for home loans are near an 11-year high and building permits rebounded sharply in May. But record unemployment, with 30.6 million collecting unemployment checks in the first week of June, is a challenge.

In May, contracts soared 43.3% in the populous South. They jumped 56.2% in the West and increased 44.4% in the Northeast. Contracts rose 37.2% in the Midwest.

Recovery of euro zone economic sentiment gathers pace in June - Reuters News

BRUSSELS, June 29 (Reuters) - The recovery of economic sentiment in the euro zone intensified in June after a modest pick-up in May, with improvements across all sectors and a much more buoyant sense of future business, European Commission data showed on Monday.

Overall sentiment rose to 75.7 points in June from 67.5 in May, still short of market expectations of 80.0 and well below the average of 100 since 2000.

The index crashed in April to its lowest level since measurements started in 1985 as lockdowns closed large sectors of the economy. (Full Story)

May's pick-up was due to rises in sentiment in industry and among consumers. June's further increase was across all sectors, the sharpest rebounds being for retail trade and services. The latter generates about two-thirds of euro zone GDP.

Expectations about production, future demand or plans to make purchases were key parts of the improvement. All sectors also viewed employment plans more favourably, the indicator recovering between 40 and 60% of the March and April losses.

The largest euro area economies - France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain - also all registered increased confidence.

Selling price expectations picked up markedly in industry, services and retail. By contrast, consumer price expectations plummeted to an extent last seen in the financial crisis.

German inflation picks up in June - Reuters News

BERLIN, June 29 (Reuters) - German annual inflation accelerated at low levels in June, preliminary data showed on Monday, but remained well below the European Central Bank's target, providing further justification for stimulus.

German consumer prices, harmonised to make them comparable with inflation data from other European Union countries, rose by 0.8% year-on-year, compared with 0.5% in the previous month, the Federal Statistics Office said.

The reading compared with a Reuters forecast for 0.6%.

On the month, EU-harmonised prices rose 0.7% in June. A Reuters poll had predicted a rise of 0.4%.

The ECB has a target of keeping inflation close to but below 2% for the currency bloc.

ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Friday the euro zone is "probably past" the worst of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but the recovery will be uneven. (Full Story)

In Germany, the government hopes its more than 130 billion euro ($146.68 billion) stimulus package will help bring the economy, Europe's largest, back onto a growth path later this year.

The Ifo institute said last Wednesday German business morale posted its strongest rise in June since records began and the economy should return to growth in the third quarter after the coronavirus pandemic hammered output in the spring.

UK mortgage approvals slump to new record low - BoE - Reuters

LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - British mortgage approvals slumped to the lowest on record in May, data from the Bank of England showed on Monday, underscoring the scale of the hit to the housing market from the coronavirus lockdown.

The number of mortgage approvals fell to 9,273 - the lowest since comparable records began in October 1997 - from 15,851 in April which was already sharply lower than in previous months.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected approvals to rise to 25,000 in May. Before the coronavirus pandemic and the government's closure of the housing market - which was only lifted in mid-May in England - they were running at more than 70,000 a month.

The data also showed a further net repayment of consumer credit of 4.6 billion pounds ($5.7 billion) in May as people remained largely stuck at home and spent less, although the pace of the repayment slowed from April.

The BoE reported a further big rise in the amount of money households and companies hold in their bank accounts which increased by 52.0 billion, compared with increases of about 67 billion and 38 billion pounds in March and April.

That compared with an average monthly increase of 9.3 billion pounds in the six months to February, before the coronavirus crisis escalated.