Nothing happened in 2016 as expected. The Chinese economy didn’t fall into a major crisis. Its currency, the yuan, as its financial markets, stabilized after the previous summer bumps. Growth, even if it has been lower than in the past years, was still strong, at around 6.5%. This figure would make envious most of the emerging countries, not to say a word about developed ones. National debts, and notably state-owned enterprises and local authorities ones, have been refinanced without affecting the banking sector. Trade surplus and the central bank huge reserves protect the country from any wariness coming ...

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The last annual report of Agence France Trésor, which is in charge of managing French State debt and was chaired by the head of the Treasury, Bruno Bezard until he was replaced by Odile Renaud-Basso last summer, has revealed that the amount of issuance premiums collected by France in 2015 reached near 25 billion euro. The same report (p.20) shows that this situation is quite atypical in the eurozone since Germany collected ten times less and Italy, another major borrower, three times less.

What are we talking about? The State, through AFT, when it issues a bond, can ...

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The euphoria which has prevailed on financial markets for a month, following Donald Trump election seems unfailing. Monetary policy becoming more restrictive and the dollar rise which resulted from it, did not undermine commentator optimism and investor appetite. After a gloomy start this year, American growth rebounded during the third quarter to reach, on an annual basis, a rhythm close to 3%. In November, unemployment rate staid at 4.6%. In this economic environment, Janet Yellen, who chairs the American central bank, announced last week, an increase of its key interest rate, which was expected. But, and that was much ...

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