Long after the debt crisis is over, Europe will be struggling with an even more serious problem – how to pay for increasing numbers of old people. Today’s graphic is a map of Europe showing the projected old-age dependency ration in 2060.

Car sales extended their declines in France, Spain and Italy in January, leaving little hope of a European auto market rebound anytime soon. Today’s graphic breaks down the numbers by market and manufacturer. As a bonus, click around this interactive graphic to see variations of new passenger car registrations in Europe.

Bankia has been the focal point of Spain’s banking crisis since requesting a massive state bailout in mid-2012. Writedowns on rotten property assets led it to post Spain’s biggest ever corporate loss for 2012. Today’s graphic looks at some of the biggest banking losses in Europe.

Investigators from across Europe have uncovered evidence that soccer matches at club and national levels were fixed around the globe in a scam run from Singapore. The known cases of match-fixing occurred mostly in the West, but the real profits for the syndicates were in Southeast Asia, where the size of the gambling market completely dwarfed that of Europe. Today’s graphic summarizes the match fixing process and shows how it was so lucrative.

At the end of the second quarter of 2012, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area stood at 90%, compared with 88.2% at the end of the first quarter of 2012. In the EU27, the ratio increased from 83.5% to 84.9%. Today’s graphic shows the government debt to GDP ratio for every European country.

Volkswagen’s success in Slovakia illustrates a divide among European carmakers. Those that cut costs last decade in Western Europe like Volkswagen, or those who never had expensive factories there, such as Hyundai and Kia, are now investing in new designs, new markets and increasing production. Those who are only considering restructuring now, however – Peugeot, Fiat, Renault, and Opel – are struggling, as problems at their operations in Western Europe outweigh the benefits of their investment in cheaper eastern facilities. Today’s graphic looks at the location of car assembly plants in Europe and the change in the market share over the last two years.

 

Youth unemployment has hit hardest in the south of Europe, but the north is not immune. Significantly, substantial numbers of young people are not in employment, education or training (known as NEET). Today’s graphic breaks down the unemployment & NEET rate for each European country.

EU leaders today agreed to allow rescue funds to be directly given to banks, hoping to prevent a breakup of their currency.  They also pledged that all banks would be overseen by a single supervisor, giving investors hopes that the bond between banks and governments would be loosened, allowing for financial growth.  The announcements promoted growth in the markets today, with all major indexes up.  Read the rest of the Reuters article here.

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We have announced the results of our 39^th Extel Survey, displaying the leading Pan-European companies and professionals for Investor Relations.

The survey ran from 19 March to 4 May 2012 and voting was primarily conducted online. Our survey reflected the contribution of over 14,000 professionals from over 2,100 buyside firms, more than 2,500 analysts from 270 brokerage firms/research houses and nearly 800 of Europe’s largest quoted companies worldwide  Some of the prestigious names, listed as winners, included UBS, JP Morgan AM and Tudor Capita.

Our survey also identified a number of industry trends, which include:

• Increasing spread of commissions across more research providers, with 475 different firms receiving nominations in Extel this year
• Primacy of ‘independent’ thinking in what the buy-side want from brokerage research
• Growth of one-on-one meetings with buy-side and divisional directors at companies

We also announced the results of our UK Small & Mid-Cap survey, representing the contributions of 350 buyside firms in the industry.  That release can be seen here.

In total, over 450 awards were given to industry leaders across Europe, honoring equity, economics and strategy, and commodities market leaders.  The ceremony was hosted by key members of the financial community throughout Europe, including our own Jim Smith.

For a list of key winners and highlights, see the press release. To view the headline results visit www.extelsurveys.com.

Every time you hear about a new fund coming to the rescue of Europe’s banks, it seems to be a different acronym. ESM, EFSM, EFSF — what? Fred Katayama explains what these acronyms that are giving or loaning billions really mean.

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