Europe Minor Markets Risk Suite

EUROPE MINOR MARKETS RISK SUITE

DAILY UPDATE

Depressing general Risk Outlook sets in Europe Minor Markets as a whole with notable differentiation (one time is not customary) for the Swiss financial centre ZURICH -RM4. This situation can be affiliated to peripheral spread performance registered lately on these secondary centres with cyclical dichotomies embedded in fast forwarding control operated by their respective regulators in response to containing dynano-effect of magnitudes from London and New York. The Zurich differentiation stems classical economic analysis whereby the Swiss are seen as adept of Risk Inertia with facettes of netrality and resilience.

The Economic beauty sleep of Madrid is also tribute to a well acclaimed orthodoxy whereby the Tertiary is doped with high demand coupled with behavioural attitude towards foreign goods. The prevalence of such orthodoxy is starting to raise some eyebraws at European level.

Amsterdam is set to recover faster than EMRISK SUITE counterparts given the Dutch Economy's ability to rapidly adapt to changes occuring overnight. Dublin is still attracting a sizeable foreign direct investment but not enough to veer off the UK's appetite to compete fiercely on these grounds. Although the Risk Spectra on the Irish Economy is still wide to warrant further expansion in the very short-term, it remains to be seen if macro-management aimed at demand push would be resisted.

Consumption is still dramatically down at Milan Financial Centre due to the artifically hyped cost of the Euro. Nobody would have anticipated that the Italian Economy would still lag behind adaptation after the introduction of the Euro nearly a decade ago. Unlike Amsterdam, Stockholm also on RM-12 shows worrying signs of macroeconomic imbalances, especially on the invisible trade portfolios. Helsinki remains constant with little change in perspective, unless market Risk Spectra deplete adversely.

Our predictions for the suite are mitigated, with no harmony in tendencies according to disparate locations and other cultural factors that are hard to quantify.

AMSTERDAM - RM12

BRUSSELS - RM10

DUBLIN-RM13

HELSINKI - RM6

MADRID - RM9

MILAN - RM15

STOCKHOLM - RM12

ZURICH - RM4

EMRISK COMPOSITE - RM11

	AMSTERDAM	BRUSSELS	DUBLIN	HELSINKI	MADRID	MILAN	STOCKHOLM	ZURICH	EMRISK
	NETHERLANDS	BELGIUM	IRELAND	FINLAND	SPAIN	ITALY	SWEDEN	SWITZERLAND	EMRISK COMP
1
2
3
4								RM4
5
6				RM6
7
8
9					RM9
10		RM10
11									RM11
12	RM12						RM12
13			RM13
14
15						RM15
16
17
18
19
20

AMSTERDAM

SUMMARY

Amsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands and one of the most important cities in Europe in which to do business. Many large Dutch corporations and banks have their headquarters in Amsterdam, including ABN Amro, Akzo Nobel, Heineken International, ING Group, Ahold, Delta Lloyd Group and Philips. KPMG International's global headquarters is located in nearby Amstelveen, as is the European headquarters of Cisco Systems.

Though many subsidiaries are located along the old canals, more and more companies decide to move to a newly built office tower outside the city centre. The South Axis (Dutch: Zuidas) is increasingly a banking area, and is intended to become the new business-face of the Netherlands. There the recently expanded World trade centre also has its location.

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX) is part of Euronext, and is the world's oldest stock exchange. It still is one of the most important in Europe.

BRUSSELS

SUMMARY

Although some believe, wrongly, that the capital of Belgium is the entire Brussels-Capital Region, article 194 of the Belgian Constitution lays down that the capital of Belgium is the City of Brussels municipality.[4] Arguments that article 194's use of lower case for "ville de Bruxelles" and "stad Brussel" makes a subtle difference and means that greater Brussels being represented as the capital cannot be legally defended. However, although the City of Brussels is the official capital, the funds allowed by the federation and region for the representative role of the capital are divided among the 19 municipalities, and some national institutions are sited in the other 18 municipalities. Thus, while de jure only the City of Brussels is entitled to the title of capital city of Belgium, de facto the entire Region plays this role.

Flanders and the French community
The Brussels-Capital Region is one of the three federated regions of Belgium, alongside Wallonia and the Flemish Region. Geographically and linguistically, it is a (bilingual) enclave in the (unilingual) Flemish Region. Regions are one component of Belgium's complex institutions, the three communities being the other component: the Brussels inhabitants must deal with either the French (speaking) community or the Flemish Community for matters such as culture and education.

Brussels is also the capital of both the French Community of Belgium (Communauté française de Belgique in French) and of Flanders (Vlaanderen); all Flemish capital institutions are established here: Flemish Parliament, Flemish government and its administration.

European Union
The Paul-Henri Spaak building of the European ParliamentMain article: Brussels and the European Union
Two of the main institutions of the European Union - the European Commission and the Council of the European Union - have their headquarters in Brussels: the Commission in the Berlaymont building, and the Council in the Justus Lipsius building facing it. The third institution, the European Parliament, also has a parliamentary chamber in Brussels in which its committees meet and some of its plenary sessions are held (the other plenary sessions are held in Strasbourg, and its administrative headquarters are in Luxembourg).

International organisations
Brussels is also the political seat of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Western European Union (WEU), the World Customs Organization (WCO) and EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. Due to this, some countries have three ambassadors present in Brussels: the normal bi-lateral ambassador, the EU-ambassador, and finally the NATO-ambassador.

DUBLIN

SUMMARY

Dublin has been at the centre of Ireland's phenomenal economic growth over the last 10-15 years, a period (often of double-digit growth) referred to as the Celtic Tiger years. Living standards in the city have risen dramatically, although the cost of living has also soared. Dublin is now the planet's 16th most expensive city (8th most expensive city in Europe, excluding Russian cities).[18] However, it has the fourth highest wages for a city in the world, ahead of both New York City and London, though behind Zürich, Geneva and Oslo.

Historically, brewing has probably been the industry most often associated with the city: Guinness has been brewed at the St. James's Gate Brewery since 1759. Since the advent of the Celtic Tiger years, however, a large number of global pharmaceutical, information and communications technology companies have located in Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area. For example, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, PayPal, Yahoo! and Pfizer (among others) now have European headquarters and/or operational bases in the city and its suburbs. Intel and Hewlett-Packard have large manufacturing plants in Leixlip, County Kildare, 15 km (9 mi) to the west.

Spire of Dublin (on O'Connell Street)Banking, finance and commerce are also important in the city — the IFSC alone handles over €1 trillion a year. Many international firms have established major headquarters in the city (eg. Citibank, Commerzbank). Also located in Dublin is the Irish Stock Exchange (ISEQ), Internet Neutral Exchange (INEX) and Irish Enterprise Exchange (IEX).

The economic boom years have led to a sharp increase in construction, which is now also a major employer, especially for immigrants. Redevelopment is taking place in large projects such as Dublin Docklands, Spencer Dock and others, transforming once run-down industrial areas in the city centre. Dublin City Council seems to now have loosened the former limits on "high-rise" structures. The tallest building, Liberty Hall, is only 59.4 m (194.9 ft) tall; already under construction in the city is Heuston Gate, a 117 m (384 ft) building (134 m including spire). The 120 m (394 ft) Britain Quay Tower and the 120 m (394 ft) Point Village Watchtower have been approved. Construction has started on the latter. Also the U2 Tower will be the tallest building on the Island of Ireland when it is finished.

In 2005, around 800,000 people were employed in the Greater Dublin Area, of whom around 600,000 were employed in the services sector and 200,000 in the industrial sector.

Economic growth is expected to slow in the coming years, with the Irish central bank predicting medium-term growth rates of around 3–5%. While this represents a slowdown relative to the early Celtic Tiger years, it is still stronger than growth in most other wealthy countries.

HELSINKI

SUMMARY

The Helsinki metropolitan area generates approximately one third of the Finnish GDP. GDP per capita is roughly 1.5 times the national average, making Helsinki one of the wealthiest capitals in Europe. In 2004, the local economy grew by 3.2%.

Since the 1950s, the economy has become largely service-based, although industries such as shipbuilding continue to employ a substantial number of people. Large service-based employers include the public sector and the information technology sector.

The metropolitan area is the location of choice for the headquarters of large Finnish companies as well as the regional headquarters of international companies. This is primarily due to good transport infrastructure, both international and national as well as the availability of skilled labour.

Helsinki (in Finnish; listen (help·info)), or Helsingfors (in Swedish; listen (help·info)) is the capital and largest city of Finland. It is in the southern part of Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, by the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is 565,186 (30 April 2007), making it the most populous municipality in Finland by a wide margin.

Helsinki is Finland's administrative center and the center of Finnish cultural life and business activity. There is a large and varied collection of museums, galleries, and performance spaces in the city. Many major company headquarters are in Helsinki.

Helsinki, along with the neighbouring cities of Vantaa, Espoo, and Kauniainen, constitutes what is known as the capital region, with over 1,000,000 inhabitants. The Greater Helsinki area contains several additional municipalities and has a population of 1,293,093.

MADRID

SUMMARY

Despite of the tendency of moving the production centers to industrial parks located in the outskirts of the metropolitan area, the city of Madrid remains as the second most important industrial center in the country, only exceeded by Barcelona. During this period, Madrid experienced a very significant growth in its tertiary activities. In this sense, the importance of the Barajas Airport for the city's economy is remarkable, adding to the administrative and financial functions associated with being the capital of Spain. Construction (housing and public works such as the ring structure of roads and trains system) has constituted a major pillar of the economy up to 2006. Nevertheless, Madrid, like the rest of the country, is lagging behind the rest of Europe in the introduction of new technologies. In addition, inflation in Spain far above European average over this period has made Madrid and the rest of the country lose competitivity.

Nevertheless, regarding the city's Economic environment, it has also been stated that despite the growth of the economy of the country as a whole has been moderated compared to the last two quarters, the economy of the Autonomous Region of Madrid continued to grow in the second quarter of the year, above the rate for Spain as a whole, and for the EMU, reaching a year-on-year increase of 4.2%. The growth outlook for the city of Madrid points to a year-on-year increase of 4.0% in 2006 which makes Madrid one of the most dynamic and thriving cities in the European Union.

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. Residents are called Madrileños.

The city is located on the river Manzanares in the center of the country, between the autonomous communities of Castile and León and Castile-La Mancha. Due to its economic output, standard of living, and market size, Madrid is considered the major financial center of the Iberian Peninsula; it hosts the head offices of the vast majority of the major Spanish companies, as well as the headquarters of three of the world's 100 largest companies. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political center of Spain. The current mayor is Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, of the conservative Partido Popular.

As the capital of Spain, Madrid is a city of great cultural and political importance. While Madrid possesses a modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighborhoods and streets. Its landmarks include the huge Royal Palace of Madrid; the Teatro Real (Royal theatre) with its restored 1850 Opera House; the Buen Retiro park, founded in 1631; the imposing 19th-century National Library building (founded in 1712) containing some of Spain's historical archives; an archaeological museum of international reputation; and three superb art museums: Prado Museum, which hosts one of the finest art collections in the world, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, a museum of modern art, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, housed in the renovated Villahermosa Palace.

The population of the city was 3.2 million (December 2005), while the estimated urban area population was 5.1 million. The entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area (urban area and suburbs) is calculated to be 5.84 million. The city spans a total of 607km² (234 sq mi).

Following the restoration of democracy in 1975 and Spain's integration into the European Union, Madrid has played an increasing role in European finances, marking the city as one of the most important European metropolises.

MILAN

SUMMARY

Milan is one of the major financial and business centres of the world. The city is the seat of the Italian Stock Exchange (the Borsa Italiana)"Piazza Affari" and its hinterland is an avant-garde industrial area. Milan was included in a list of ten "Alpha world cities" by Peter J. Taylor and Robert E. Lang of the Brookings Institution in the economic report "U.S. Cities in the 'World City Network'" (Key Findings, Full ReportPDF (940 KiB)).

Milan is also well known as the seat of the Alfa Romeo motorcar company, for its silk production, and as one of the world's capitals for fashion and a world leader for design.

Milan also provides directional functions for the whole of Lombardy, as its industrial base has been externalized throughout the region in the 1960s-70s.

The Fiera Milano, the city's Exhibition Centre and Trade Fair complex, is notable. This new fairground, in the north-western suburb of Pero and Rho, opened in April 2005, making the Fiera Milano the largest trade fair complex in the world.

Milan of the future
At present, Milan is experiencing a significant architectural and urban design renaissance. Many new construction projects are under way with the aim of rehabilitating disused, peripheral industrial areas, including entire quarters. Examples of these projects include: the addition to the Teatro alla Scala; the CityLife project in the old "fiera" site; the European Library; the new quarter Santa Giulia; and the Porta Nuova project in the Garibaldi-Republica zone. Famous architects are involved in the construction of this "new" Milan, such as Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Massimiliano Fuksas and Daniel Libeskind. These major works will give Milan a new skyline no longer dominated by the Duomo and the Pirelli Tower.

STOCKHOLM

SUMMARY

The vast majority of Stockholmians work in the service industry, which accounts for roughly 85% of jobs in Stockholm. The almost total absence of heavy industry makes Stockholm one of the world's cleanest metropolises.

The last decade has seen a significant number of jobs created in high technology companies. Large employers include IBM, Ericsson, and Electrolux. A major IT centre is located in Kista, in northern Stockholm.

Stockholm is Sweden's financial center. Major Swedish banks, such as Swedbank, Handelsbanken, and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, are headquartered in Stockholm, as are the major insurance companies Skandia and Trygg-Hansa. Stockholm is also home to Sweden's foremost stock exchange, the Stockholm Stock Exchange (Stockholmsbörsen). Finally, about 45% of Swedish companies with more than 200 employees are headquartered in Stockholm. Famous clothes retailer H&M is headquartered in the city too.

In the last years, tourism has played an important part in the city's economy. Between 1991–2004, annual overnight stays increased from 4 to 7.7 million.
Stockholm is the largest city and capital of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the parliament, and the official residence of the Swedish monarch.

Stockholm has been the political and economic centre of Sweden since the 13th century. Today it is the largest municipality of Sweden, with a population of 788,269 (June 2007). The urban agglomeration of Stockholm has a population of 1,641,000. With its location several islands on the east coast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago, it is widely renowned for its natural beauty.

ZURICH

SUMMARY

Zürich (German: Zürich, Zürich German: Züri [ˈtsyɾi], French: Zurich [zyʁik], in English generally Zurich, Italian: Zurigo is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 371,767 in 2007; population of urban area is some 1,007,972) and capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre (the political capital of Switzerland being Bern), and is widely considered to be one of the world's global cities. According to several surveys in 2006 and 2007, Zürich was named the city with the "best quality of life" in the world.

The origin of the name is probably the Celtic word Turus, a corroborating reference to which was found on a tomb inscription dating from the Roman occupation in the 2nd century; the antique name of the town in its romanized form was Turicum.
UBS, Credit Suisse, Swiss Re, and many other financial institutions have their headquarters in Zürich, the commercial center of Switzerland. Zürich is the world's primary centre for offshore banking, mainly due to Swiss bank secrecy. The financial sector accounts for about one quarter of the city's economic activities. The Swiss Stock Exchange is also located in Zürich (see also Swiss banking).

Zürich is a leading financial centre and has repeatedly been proclaimed the global city with the best quality of life anywhere in the world. The Greater Zurich Area is Switzerland’s economic center and home to a vast number of international companies. The GDP of the Zürich Area is CHF 210 billion (USD 160 billion) or CHF 58'000 (USD 45'000) per capita (2005).

Contributory factors to economic strength
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The success of the Greater Zürich Economic Area as one of the most important in the world is due to many factors: The very low tax rate and the possibility for foreign companies and private persons to optimize their tax burden by personalized tax agreement with the Tax Authorities is surely one of the key points. This practice often causes conflicts with Switzerland's neighbours in Europe, who do not like this type of successful and aggressive strategy for attracting large corporations and service/research centers, such as IBM, General Motors Europe, Google, Microsoft,Dow Chemical, and Pfizer. The fact that Switzerland does not have an inheritance tax is also an important attraction for wealthy private persons.

Another reason for the economic success of Zürich is the extensive research and educational (R&D) field of the city. The ETH Zurich is ranked alongside the University of Zurich: there are more than 58,000 students. The reservoir for qualified employees is therefore impressive.

A new multi-purpose area in southern Zürich (Sihlcity) has opened its doors on March 22,2007, spread over 100,000 square metres in the center of Zürich. Among other things it includes a shopping center and a movie theater. Sihlcity was built on the foundations of the former Sihl Paper Factory.

Other data: Switzerland scored in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2005 within the Top 10 in the following categories:

Nobel Prizes per resident (No.2)
Active patents per resident (No.2)
Private research expenditure (No.6)
R&D expenditure per resident (No.6)
R&D employees per resident (No.8)
R&D expenditure as % of the GNP (No.10)
Most of the Swiss R&D institutions are concentrated in the Zürich area.

The high quality of life has been cited as a likely reason for the presence of international economic growth in Zürich. Mercer has ranked Zürich as the city with the highest quality of life anywhere in the world[13] for the fourth consecutive time. Berne and Geneva were also ranked among the Top 10. Statistics show that in the productive sector of the city 60% speak German, 43% English, 30% French and 13% Italian. As such, the city is home to a considerable number of people speaking at least two or three languages. Thanks to extremely low crime rates, personal safety can be assured without extra charges. And the importance of security as an economic factor should not be underestimated.

The Swiss stock exchange
The Swiss Exchange in Zürich.The Swiss stock exchange is called SWX Swiss Exchange. The SWX is the head group of several different worldwide operative financial systems: virt-x, Eurex, Eurex US, EXFEED and STOXX. The exchange turnover generated at the SWX was in 2004 of 1,244,045 million CHF; the number of transactions arrived in the same period at 14,697,381 and the Swiss Performance Index (SPI) arrived at a total market capitalization of 780,320 million CHF.

The SWX Swiss Exchange goes back more than 150 years. In 1996, fully electronic trading replaced the traditional floor trading system at the stock exchanges of Geneva (founded in 1850), Zürich (1873) and Basle (1876).

The SWX is subject to Swiss law. The Federal Act on Stock Exchanges and Securities Trading (SESTA) prescribes the concept of self-regulation, which obligates the SWX to meet international standards in its regulatory activities. The SWX itself is supervised by the Swiss Federal Banking Commission (SFBC).

The shares traded on SWX are mainly held in the Swiss-based accounts of domestic and international investors. Other products traded on the SWX Platform are bonds (CHF-denominated bonds as well as international bonds), traditional investments, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs, known as exchange-traded index funds) and non-standardized derivatives. In terms of turnover, the SWX Swiss Exchange operates Europe's largest market segment for listed and exchange-traded warrants.

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