PARIS (MNI) – The French government intends to sacrifice part of
its revenues from a tax on petroleum products in order to lower prices
at the gas pump slightly, the French media report.

The domestic tax on the consumption of energy products (TICPE)
could be lowered by 2-3 cents at a cost to state coffers of E1.4 million
per day for each cent, the daily Le Parisien reported Monday. The
reduction should be limited to a few cents, confirmed AFP.

Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told Socialist Party members over
the weekend that he hoped for a “shared effort” on the part of
distributors and producers during the current week, according to AFP.
Consultations with distributors and consumer groups are planned
Monday and Tuesday.

The president of the French union of petroleum industries (UFIP),
Jean-Louis Schilansky, said his members intended to cooperate with the
government, but cautioned that the distributors’ margins amounted to
only around one cent per liter – an estimation confirmed by a government
report, according to La Tribune.

Last week, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault acknowledged that
sacrifice on the fiscal front would be “modest” and “temporary”. The
TICPE is an important source of revenue, bringing in some E25 billion
per year.

During his election campaign, President Francois Hollande had
promised to impose a short-term freeze on petrol prices in case of a
rapid increase. The pledge was shelved while oil prices were on the
retreat, but has now come back to haunt the government with the upturn
since July and the weakness of the euro.

–Paris newsroom +331 4271 5540; email: ssandelius@mni-news.com

[TOPICS: M$F$$,MFX$$$,MI$OI$,MGX$$$]

hopefully Gerry or Peter will be able to get in .

GERMANY DATA: Jul import prices +0.7% m/m, +1.2% y/y; Jun +1.3% y/y
–Jul import prices above MNI median m/m fcast (+0.5%)
–Jul export prices +0.3% m/m, +1.4% y/y; Jun +1.4% y/y
–Jul ex-oil/oil products -0.4% m/m, +1.0% y/y
–Jul import prices: energy goods +3.3% m/m, +1.5% y/y
–Jul import prices: oil +7.9% m/m; natural gas -6.1% m/m
–Jul import prices: petroleum products +6.5% m/m
–See MNI Mainwire for details

• +0.7% m/m ( survey 0.9%, prior -1.5%)
• +1.2% y/y (survey 1.4%, prior 1.3%)

EUR/USD unchanged at 1.2502/05.

– Repeating Story Published at 1735 ET Sunday
–Merkel: Have Faith That ECB Will Operate Within Its Mandate

FRANKFURT (MNI) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday urged
politicians in her own country to choose their words carefully when it
comes to Greece and withhold judgement until the Troika report on Greece
is released in September.

“We are at the moment in a very decisive phase in battling the
Eurozone debt crisis, and that is why I think we should all be weighing
our words carefully,” Merkel said in an interview with Germany’s ARD
television.

Her comments came after Alexander Dobring, general secretary of the
CSU, the sister-party of Merkel’s CDU, said he expected Greece to leave
the Eurozone in 2013, according to a weekend interview with the weekly
Bild am Sonntag.

Merkel also said she had confidence the ECB would stay within its
price stability mandate and offered cautious backing for ECB Governing
Council member Jens Weidmann.

Weidmann, in an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine
earlier Sunday, repeated his opposition to the ECB’s plan to consider
buying sovereign bonds of countries that seek aid from the ESM rescue
fund.

Merkel, who has said she supports ECB President Mario Draghi’s
bond-buying plan, said the central bank has “a very clear and narrow
mandate to contribute to price stability, and I continue to trust that
the ECB will make its decisions — and Mario Draghi has also said this
– on the basis of this mandate.”

Merkel said she found it “good that Jens Weidmann every now and
again issues political warnings.” It was “not unusual” for there to be
disagreements within the ECB Governing Council, any more than within the
European Council.

Central bank independence “means that I deal with the political
questions — and here we have our hands full — and of course that I
help strengthen the position of Jens Weidmann … so that his influence
also within the European Central Bank is enhanced,” Merkel said.

Merkel said she had “no indications” that the International
Monetary Fund was considering leaving the Greek aid program, and she
denied that doubts over Greece’s viability as a Eurozone member were
spreading within her own coalition government.

While Greece clearly still has more to do, Merkel highlighted the
effect of German politicians’ comments abroad, and “that is why we must
tread carefully, knowing what kind of changes are necessary in Greece at
the moment.”

Merkel repeated comments she made after a meeting with Greek Prime
Minister Antonis Samaras on Friday, saying Greece has a right to expect
that Germany will “wait for this (Troika) report and then make our
judgement.”

Merkel also denied a report from Spiegel that her government was
pushing for a new European Convention, as early as December, to consider
more drastic changes to the EU’s treaties. Merkel said such discussion
died when Britain declined to go along with the EU’s Fiscal Compact.

“I’m not calling for a convention. I am calling — and have been
for a while — for us not to stop moving forward on the steps we have
taken,” Merkel said, adding that these next steps would be discussed
over the autumn months.

– Frankfurt bureau: +49-69-720 142; email: ccermak@mni-news.com –

[TOPICS: MGX$$$,M$$EC$,M$$CR$,M$G$$$,M$X$$$,MT$$$$,M$Y$$$]

Tsunami not expected on U.S. coast .

Warnings in effect for Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, and Mexico .

BBG

We await the German July import price index in about a hour along with machine tool orders out of Tokyo . How exciting is that?

• Merkel: Euro in very ‘decisive phase’ on Greece , everyone should weigh their words , no indication that IMF will pullout of Greek aid program.- MNI
• China announces “stimulus projects” to boost economy -Telegraph
• U.K. Hometrack August housing survey falls 0.1% m/m and falls 0.5% y/y , fell for 2nd month amid a “fragile market”.
• PBOC sets yuan rate at 6.3392 from 6.3305 on Friday . (AUD/USD and NZD/USD sold off sharply).
• China July industrial profits down 2.7% y/y , continued weak numbers out of China .
• HSBC lowers China GDP forecast to 8% in 2012 and 8.5% in 2013.
• South Korea: bad news , consumer  sentiment falls to 99, a  7 month low , signaling the economy may not have bottomed yet. Good news Moody’s upgrades them to AA3 citing strong fiscal fundamentals.

EUR/USD ; Consolidated around 1.2505/10 most of the session with high of 1.2524 and low of 1.2492.  Merkel/Hollande/Samaras talks did very little to add to the excitement today.  A few numbers out of Germany  keeping the EUR/USD range bound for the time being . Support 1.2480, resistance 1.2550.

USD/JPY : Ran stops through 78.75 touching a high of 78.84.  A mix of offers and stops up through 79.00.  Solid bids at 78.50 from left behind importers. Continued position liquidation against cross commodity  currencies ( AUD/NZD/CAD) kept the USD/JPY bid during part of the session. Higher oil prices caused by Hurricane Issac was also keeping  USD/JPY  firm though out the day .

AUD/USD : Failed to take out the stops above 1.0440 , and drifted lower to support level at 1.0400 . Immediately after the Yuan fix , AUD/USD went from 1.0415 to a low of 1.0372 after scattered stops were touched . Good buying interest down at the 1.0370 /75 level stopped the free-fall. With long term commodity price weakness due to China and global economic  slowdowns , the AUD/USD is looking vulnerable to another round of selling .

• Cites Korea strong fiscal fundamentals.
• Cites Korea economic resilience , competitiveness, reduced external vulnerability of banking .
• Status-quo continuing in north-south geopolitics.
• Outlook for government finances is favorable .

First of the 3 agencies to rate South Korea AA , USD/KRW on the lows at 1135.00

• down 2.7 %   y/y (prior -2.2%)
• Industrial companies profit falls 5.4% on year, after drop 1.7 % in June .
• Industrial companies sales at 50 trln Yuan .

AUD/USD  low at 1.0370/75. now back  above 1.0400.

NZD/USD low at 0.8080/85. now back above  0.8100.

Stops triggered .

Now hearing HSBC issued New forecast for China GDP .

• 2012 now 8% from 8.4%
• 2013 now 8.5% from 8.8%

Do you expect anything concrete to come out of the conference ?   Or is it going to be a “wait and see” what happens later ?

BEIJING (MNI) – European Central Bank officials are considering
plans to guide investors towards a target or range for yields on bonds
issued by Spain and other countries deemed at risk, the Wall Street
Journal reported Monday.

The report, which cited a person familiar with the matter, said
discussions about informal and flexible objectives for shorter-maturity
yields are ongoing, with nothing likely to be finalized by the September
6 policy meeting at the earliest.

The Wall Street Journal said the ECB is discussing publicly
communicating details on the amount and types of bonds it would be
purchasing in an effort to achieve yield objectives.

The ECB last week denied a Der Spiegel article suggesting that the
bank was considering capping yields on bonds, insisting the report was
“absolutely misleading.”

The newspaper said an ECB spokesman wouldn’t comment, referring
back to last Monday’s statement that “it is absolutely misleading to
report on decisions which have not yet been taken and also on individual
views, which have not yet been discussed by the ECB’s Governing Council,
which will act strictly within its mandate.”

beijing@marketnews.com
**MNI Beijing Newsroom +86-10 8532 5998**

[TOPICS: M$$EC$,M$X$$$,M$$CR$]

The dollar is trading at session highs , becoming the flavor of the day .  Nothing newsworthy just continuation of Friday’s strength.  Key levels coming up in EUR/USD at 1.0500 , USD/JPY at 79.00, and AUD/USD at 1.0400 . Sorry that’s 1.2500 in the EUR/USD not 1.0500 where it should be .

Slightly higher USD/JPY seen as boost to exporters.

USD/JPY trading near session highs of 78.75 . Small stops above this level into exporter offers above .

• Falls 0.1 % m/m (prior -0.1%)
• Falls 0.5% y/y (prior-0.5%)

U.K. house prices fell for a second month as demand declined amid a “fragile” market. Supply-demand balance weakens, Hometrack expects to see slow downward pressure on prices over the remainder of 2012.

bbg

GBP/USD unchanged at 1.5815/18.

China has announced a total of 8 trillion yuan of “stimulus projects to try to boost confidence in an economy that appears to be cooling faster than expected.

The Telegraph

AUD/USD trading above Fridays close , now at 1.0422/25 and moving nowhere fast.

–Merkel: Have Faith That ECB Will Operate Within Its Mandate

FRANKFURT (MNI) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday urged
politicians in her own country to choose their words carefully when it
comes to Greece and withhold judgement until the Troika report on Greece
is released in September.

“We are at the moment in a very decisive phase in battling the
Eurozone debt crisis, and that is why I think we should all be weighing
our words carefully,” Merkel said in an interview with Germany’s ARD
television.

Her comments came after Alexander Dobring, general secretary of the
CSU, the sister-party of Merkel’s CDU, said he expected Greece to leave
the Eurozone in 2013, according to a weekend interview with the weekly
Bild am Sonntag.

Merkel also said she had confidence the ECB would stay within its
price stability mandate and offered cautious backing for ECB Governing
Council member Jens Weidmann.

Weidmann, in an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine
earlier Sunday, repeated his opposition to the ECB’s plan to consider
buying sovereign bonds of countries that seek aid from the ESM rescue
fund.

Merkel, who has said she supports ECB President Mario Draghi’s
bond-buying plan, said the central bank has “a very clear and narrow
mandate to contribute to price stability, and I continue to trust that
the ECB will make its decisions — and Mario Draghi has also said this
– on the basis of this mandate.”

Merkel said she found it “good that Jens Weidmann every now and
again issues political warnings.” It was “not unusual” for there to be
disagreements within the ECB Governing Council, any more than within the
European Council.

Central bank independence “means that I deal with the political
questions — and here we have our hands full — and of course that I
help strengthen the position of Jens Weidmann … so that his influence
also within the European Central Bank is enhanced,” Merkel said.

Merkel said she had “no indications” that the International
Monetary Fund was considering leaving the Greek aid program, and she
denied that doubts over Greece’s viability as a Eurozone member were
spreading within her own coalition government.

While Greece clearly still has more to do, Merkel highlighted the
effect of German politicians’ comments abroad, and “that is why we must
tread carefully, knowing what kind of changes are necessary in Greece at
the moment.”

Merkel repeated comments she made after a meeting with Greek Prime
Minister Antonis Samaras on Friday, saying Greece has a right to expect
that Germany will “wait for this (Troika) report and then make our
judgement.”

Merkel also denied a report from Spiegel that her government was
pushing for a new European Convention, as early as December, to consider
more drastic changes to the EU’s treaties. Merkel said such discussion
died when Britain declined to go along with the EU’s Fiscal Compact.

“I’m not calling for a convention. I am calling — and have been
for a while — for us not to stop moving forward on the steps we have
taken,” Merkel said, adding that these next steps would be discussed
over the autumn months.

– Frankfurt bureau: +49-69-720 142; email: ccermak@mni-news.com –

[TOPICS: MGX$$$,M$$EC$,M$$CR$,M$G$$$,M$X$$$,MT$$$$,M$Y$$$]