VW may offer U.S. pickup
Volkswagen is looking at getting back into the van market as well as offering a pickup truck in the United States, a top official for the automaker told Bloomberg.
The comment comes as VW examines opportunities to broaden its range in North America, Eckhard Scholz, head of the light commercial vehicle unit, said at a press conference in Hanover, Germany, on Wednesday.
“Pickup trucks are a dominating segment,” while there’s also a trend in the U.S. toward compact European vans, Scholz said. “We’re looking at both options intensively.”
Foreclosures fall in most states
U.S. foreclosure filings in February fell by 4 percent to the lowest level since July 2006. But the number of default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions rose in Tennessee last month by 73 percent from a year ago.
RealtyTrac, the online foreclosure service that tracks repossessions, auctions and default notices, said there were 10,938 foreclosure filings last month, including 1,612 in Tennessee and 2,845 in Georgia.
“Given that August 2006 was the peak of the housing bubble, this eight-and-a-half year low in foreclosure activity is a significant milestone and a sign that nationwide foreclosure activity is on track to return to historic norms this year – and is possibly headed below historic norms given the skinny-jeans-tight lending standards over the past five years,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.
Despite the monthly increase in foreclosure filings in Tennessee, the number of foreclosures in the Volunteer State in February – one of every 1,750 Tennessee households – was 26 percent below the U.S. average. In Georgia, where one of every 1,414 households were in some type of foreclosure activity last month – foreclosures were 8.5 percent below the U.S. average.
Georgia was one of the top five states for foreclosures in the immediate aftermath of the 2009-2010 housing slump, but Georgia’s housing market has bounced back and is now performing better than the U.S. average.
Sweden expands monetary policy
Sweden’s central bank has cut its key interest rate to a record low of minus 0.25 percent, saying the move was “to make monetary policy even more expansionary.”
The Riksbank on Wednesday lowered the repo rate by 0.15 percentage points, saying there are signs inflation “is beginning to rise, but the recent appreciation of the krona risks breaking this trend.” A higher currency can weigh on inflation by making imports cheaper.
The bank said the measures and “the readiness to do more at short notice” underlined that the Riksbank was determined to keep inflation anchored.
The Riksbank also said it had bought government bonds worth for 30 billion kronor ($3.5 billion) to support the upturn in inflation.
The rate change takes effect 25 mars.
GM pulls Opel from Russia
General Motors will slash production in Russia and pull its mass-market Opel brand completely in the face of plummeting sales in the economically troubled country.
Mainstream GM brands have been among the biggest losers as Russia’s auto market shrinks, with sales of Chevrolet down 74 percent year-on-year in February and those of Opel plunging 86 percent.
Opel will leave the Russian market by December, with Chevrolet production cut back significantly to focus on top-end products such as the Corvette sports car and Tahoe SUV, which are imported into Russia from the U.S.
The move is likely to result in around $600 million in one-off losses, around a third of which will be non-cash expenses, GM said Wednesday.
“This change in our business model in Russia is part of our global strategy to ensure long-term sustainability in markets where we operate,” GM President Dan Ammann said in a statement. “This decision avoids significant investment into a market that has very challenging long-term prospects.”
GM’s factory in St. Petersburg will halt production by the middle of 2015.