European clean tech tracker
March 28, 2024--This trackers provides an overview of the main innovation, manufacturing and deployment trends in clean tech in Europe
Introduction
This European Clean Tech Tracker aims to provide a clear, timely and policy-relevant overview of the main innovation, manufacturing and deployment trends characterising the main technologies underpinning Europe's green transition.
Driven by the conviction that good policy making must be informed by transparent and reliable data, this tracker seeks to become a useful tool to inform public and private decision-making processes, as well as the broader public discourse on Europe's green transition.
Clean tech data in Europe remains significantly fragmented and difficult to access, and it is often only available on a commercial basis. This is problematic, because public data on clean tech innovation, manufacturing and deployment is essential to guide Europe’s green transition moving forward.view more
Source: bruegel.org
Germany's Real Challenges are Aging, Underinvestment, and Too Much Red Tape
March 27, 2024--Germany faces some serious economic challenges, but they aren't necessarily the ones getting the most attention. Solving these challenges requires ambitious reforms
Germany is struggling. It was the only G7 economy to shrink last year and is set to be the group's slowest-growing economy again this year, according to our latest projections. Some pundits say Germany's economic model is irreparably broken.
They argue strong growth in previous decades was based on importing cheap Russian gas, which in turn powered Germany's highly competitive export industries. With this cheap gas no longer available, the German manufacturing model doesn't work anymore, or so the story goes.
But is this accurate? It's certainly true that the shutoff of Russian gas in 2022 contributed to spiking inflation and cost-of-living pressures. However, the rise in gas prices has proven to be temporary. After soaring in 2022, wholesale gas prices have now fallen back to 2018 levels.
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Source: imf.org
Germany's Real Challenges are Aging, Underinvestment, and Too Much Red Tape
March 27, 2024-Germany faces some serious economic challenges, but they aren't necessarily the ones getting the most attention. Solving these challenges requires ambitious reforms
Germany is struggling. It was the only G7 economy to shrink last year and is set to be the group's slowest-growing economy again this year, according to our latest projections. .
Some pundits say Germany's economic model is irreparably broken. They argue strong growth in previous decades was based on importing cheap Russian gas, which in turn powered Germany's highly competitive export industries. With this cheap gas no longer available, the German manufacturing model doesn't work anymore, or so the story goes.
But is this accurate? It's certainly true that the shutoff of Russian gas in 2022 contributed to spiking inflation and cost-of-living pressures. However, the rise in gas prices has proven to be temporary. After soaring in 2022, wholesale gas prices have now fallen back to 2018 levels.
view more
Source: imf.org
Two new active ETFs from iShares on Xetra: exposure to US and developed market equities through active investment strategies
March 26, 2024--Since Tuesday, two new actively managed exchange traded funds from iShares have been tradable on the trading venues Xetra and Börse Frankfurt.
The iShares U.S. Equity High Income UCITS ETF pursues an active investment strategy designed to generate income and capital growth with lower volatility than the broader US equity market. The strategy applied by the portfolio manager essentially consists of the following components:
Holding long positions in US large capitalisation equities, taking into account an ESG investment policy,
Selling call options on a large capitalisation US equity index, such as the S&P 500 Index, to generate additional income; and
Buying futures on a large capitalisation US equity index, such as the S&P 500 Index, to reduce the impact of a potential profit cap from the sale of call options.
The iShares World Equity High Income UCITS ETF follows a similar approach, but focuses on developed market large and mid-capitalisation equities. For this purpose, call options are sold and futures are bought on indices such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100, Nikkei and EURO STOXX 50. n October 1, which fell on a weekend.
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Source: Xetra
T+1 feedback report shows mixed impacts of shortening the settlement cycle in the EU
March 21, 2024-The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, is today publishing feedback received to its Call for Evidence on shortening the settlement cycle.
In the report ESMA summarises the feedback from market participants during the consultation, focused on four areas:
Many operational impacts beyond adaptations of post-trade processes are identified as resulting from a reduction of the securities settlement cycle in the EU.
Respondents identified a wide range of both potential costs and benefits of a shortened cycle, with some responses supporting a thorough impact assessment before deciding.
Respondents provided suggestions around how and when a shorter settlement cycle could be achieved, with a strong demand for a clear signal from the regulatory front at the start of the work and clear coordination between regulators and the industry.
Stakeholders made clear the need for a proactive approach to adapt their own processes to the transition to T+1 in other jurisdictions. Some responses warned about potential infringements due to the misalignment of the EU and North America settlement cycles, that ESMA is currently assessing.
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Source: ESMA
The European Central Bank, inflation tolerance and the last mile
March 20, 2024--Inflation in the euro area has declined convincingly from the very high levels seen in the past couple of years. The rate is expected to be 2.3% in 2024-what a difference from 8.4% in 2022 and 5.6% in 2023.
But in January 2024 it was still 2.8%, so still has some way to go before dropping to 2.3%, and then to 2%, which is commonly considered to be the desirable level.
In a speech in November, European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member, Isabel Schnabel seemed to pre-empt this, talking about the "last mile" that, just like in endurance sports, is the hardest to push through.
But insisting on completing the "last mile" is quite the wrong narrative to follow. As the system is rigged with uncertainty and there is no way of understanding either the direction or size of risks, the ECB should talk instead about inflation tolerance -or risk introducing even greater volatility into the system.
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Source: bruegel.org
ETFGI reports that assets invested in the ETFs industry in Europe reached a new milestone of
US$1.90 trillion US Dollars at the end of February
March 19, 2024--ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm covering trends in the global ETFs ecosystem, reports that assets invested in the ETFs industry in Europe reached a new milestone of US$1.90 trillion at the end of February.
During the month, ETFs listed in Europe gathered net inflows of US$16.88 billion bringing YTD net inflows to US$38.50 Bn, according to ETFGI's February 2024 European ETFs and ETPs industry landscape insights report, the monthly report which is part of an annual paid-for research subscription service. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
Highlights
Assets invested in the Europe ETFs industry reached a new milestone of $1.90 Tn at the end of February beating the previous record of $1.83 Tn at the end of January 2024.
Assets increased 4.2% YTD in 2024, going from $1.82 Tn at end of 2023 to $1.90 Tn.
Net inflows of $16.88 Bn in February 2024.
YTD net inflows in 2024 of $38.50 Bn are third highest on record after YTD net inflows of $41.91 Bn in 2021 and YTD net inflows of $40.98 Bn in 2022.
17th month of consecutive net inflows.
view filing
Source: etfgi.com
Crypto ETN providers head for UK but urge rethink on retail ban
March 18, 2024- The FCA has said it will allow listing requests but only give access to 'professional investors'
A rash of cryptocurrency exchange traded products are likely to be listed in London after regulators softened their hardline opposition to allowing domestic access to funds with cryptocurrency exposure.
However, industry figures have criticised the UK's Financial Conduct Authority for limiting their availability to "professional investors" and continuing with its ban on retail investors buying crypto ETPs.
The FCA said last week it would "not object" to a request from bourses such as the London Stock Exchange and Cboe UK to list unleveraged crypto-backed exchange traded notes linked to bitcoin or ether, the two most popular cryptocurrencies.
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Source: ft.com
AI theme bucks gloomy trend for European-domiciled thematic ETFs
March 15, 2024--Four of top six thematic funds by inflows this year have been AI vehicles, data shows
Investors pulled a record $533mn from European-domiciled thematic ETFs in February, according to data from ETFbook. The withdrawals added to the gloom from a poor 2023, when the sector bled $1.1bn, the first annual outflow after at least a decade of net buying
The numbers would have been worse still without the allure of artificial intelligence, however. Four of the top six thematic funds by inflows in the first two months of 2024 were AI vehicles, ETFbook data shows- not bad considering the continent only boasts five such ETFs with combined assets of $5.1bn.
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Source: ft.com
Two new ETFs from iShares on Xetra: access to the clean energy sector and short maturity investment grade euro corporate bonds
March 15, 2024--Two new exchange-traded funds issued by iShares have been tradable on Xetra and via the trading venue Börse Frankfurt since Friday.
With the iShares Global Clean Energy UCITS ETF, investors participate in the performance of 100 companies from developed and emerging countries worldwide that are driving the development of clean energy with their products and services.
The most important sectors include utilities, IT and industrials, with the US, China and Denmark being the most strongly represented regionally. Companies that violate the principles of the UN Global Compact or are involved in arms deals, tobacco, thermal coal or oil and gas exploration are excluded.
The iShares € Ultrashort Bond ESG UCITS ETF offers an investment in very short maturity fixed and floating-rate corporate bonds that are issued in euros and have an investment grade rating. The residual term of the bonds is a maximum of one year. The selection is based on a best-in-class approach for sustainable investments, in which the best issuers are evaluated and selected from an ESG perspective.
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