Creditable reaction given to Pope Benedict’s XVI pending resignation
Pope Benedict XVI at a consistory at the Vatican today during which he announced he would resign on February 28th next.
Israeli chief rabbi Yona Metzger today praised Pope Benedict’s inter-religious outreach after news of his impending resignation emerged. Relations between Israel and the Vatican had never been better, he added.
“During his period [as pope] there were the best relations ever between the church and the chief rabbinate and we hope that this trend will continue,” a spokesman quoted the rabbi as saying after the pope announced he would resign.
“I think he deserves a lot of credit for advancing inter-religious links the world over between Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”
Rabbi Metzger wished the pope “good health and long days”, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the German government has said it was “moved and touched” by the surprise resignation of German-born Pope Benedict.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said she fully respected German-born Pope Benedict’s decision to resign because of his frailty.
“If the pope himself, after thorough reflection, has come to the conclusion that he doesn’t have the strength any more to carry out his duties, then this has my utmost respect,” Ms Merkel said in a brief statement at the Chancellery in Berlin this afternoon. “He had to make a difficult decision.”
Speaking at a regular government news conference, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said “As a Christian and as a Catholic, one can’t help but be moved and touched by this”.
“The German government has the highest respect for the Holy Father, for what he has done, for his contributions over the course of his life to the Catholic church. He has been at the head of the Catholic Church for nearly eight years. He has left a very personal signature as a thinker at the head of the church, and also as a shepherd. Whatever the reasons for this decision, they must be respected,” Mr Seibert added.
British prime minister David Cameron also paid tribute to Pope Benedict.
“He has worked tirelessly to strengthen Britain’s relations with the Holy See,” Mr Cameron said.“His visit to Britain in 2010 is remembered with great respect and affection. He will be missed as a spiritual leader to millions.”
Standard & Poor’s raises Ireland outlook to stable as market return nears
Standard & Poor’s joined Fitch on Monday in liftingIreland‘s sovereign debt rating outlook to stable, after Dublin struck a bank debt deal that improved its chances of exiting its bailout programme by the end of 2013.
S&P raised its outlook on Ireland’s BBB-plus rating to stable from negative, leaving Moody’s as the only major rating agency with a downbeat outlook on Irish government bonds.
Dublin struck a long-awaited deal with the European Central Bank last week allowing it to convert promissory notes into long-term bonds, effectively giving it far longer to repay debts it ran up in rescuing the Irish banking system.
“The exchange of promissory notes, which the government had provided to Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, for long-dated government bonds, should reduce the government’s debt-servicing costs and lower refinancing risk,” S&P said in a statement.
“We believe the success of the exchange increases the likelihood of a full return by Ireland to private financing and, therefore, of Ireland successfully exiting the EU/IMF bailout program, at the end of 2013.”
S&P, which expedited Ireland’s path towards a November 2010 bailout with a ratings cut three months before that, said it could lower its outlook again if Ireland failed to comply with its bailout conditions or raise enough cash to meet its funding need, and if growth slows amid a weaker external environment.
Alternatively it said it could consider raising the rating if the government sustains its fiscal strategy or can sell its sizable holdings in the almost fully state-owned banking sector, both of which would help reduce its still-high public debt.
“BIZARRE” MOODY’S
Fitch rewarded Ireland for fiscal and funding progress much praised among fellow euro zonestates by raising its outlook to stable from negative in November. It rates Ireland at BBB-plus, which, like S&P, leaves it three notches above junk status.
Fitch said last week that Dublin’s debt deal was positive, easing medium-term fiscal pressure, but that the same risks remained as when it raised its outlook, notably around a weak growth outlook.
Prime Minister Enda Kenny hailed last week’s deal, which sent Irish borrowing costs right down to pre-crisis levels, as an “historic step”.
Moody’s, the only main rating agency to have downgraded the country to non-investment grade, has also kept its negative outlook on Ireland, reflecting its more pessimistic assessment of the euro zone.
The head of the country’s debt agency, which has already begun its gradual return to long-term debt markets, last month complained that Moody’s Ba1 rating was “depressingly low”.
Analysts saw S&P’s move as supportive for the Irish debt agency’s plans to return to the market with a 10-year benchmark issue in the coming weeks and said it would put pressure on Moody’s to justify its stance.
“It makes Moody’s rating on Ireland look even more unreal and bizarre in a lot of ways. It’s very difficult to justify their outlook unless you have a completely different take on the world in general,” said Owen Callan, a Dublin-based bond dealer at Danske Bank.
Irish consumers see 12% rise in cost of groceries over two years
The cost of a typical basket of groceries has increased by more than 12% in the past two years. The increase was identified in a survey by the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, which also found that some products had increased in price by almost 40%.
The CAI carried out its survey in January and found price rises across a range of branded products since it last priced the same items in May 2011.
It said a sample of 19 branded goods showed prices have risen for 16 of them by between 5.5% and 38%.
The association also said the survey highlighted the extent to which the main supermarkets are engaging in price matching.
It said many of the items were identically priced across Dunnes Stores, Superquinn, SuperValu and Tesco.
CAI Chief Executive Dermott Jewell said the illusion is maintained that “competitors” in this sector are competing furiously.
He said: “Household budgets cannot, in any way, benefit from pricing patterns that are totally devoid of competition on products that are household staples.”
The survey showed that the average price of a pack of Lyons Gold Label tea bags (80 bags) is 54 cent higher than in 2011, a pack of 225g Denny Gold Medal sausages is up 30 cent, while Siúcra granulated sugar is up 38% from €1.05 in 2011 to €1.45 now.
Only one of the items surveyed costs on average less than it did in 2011. One litre of Avonmore full-fat fresh milk is now €1.14, down from €1.16.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Jewell blamed rising food prices on the lack of competition in the supermarket sector.
He described price matching as phenomenal, adding: “There’s just no stomach for competition at all in this sector.
“It has to be pointed out that these are products that the vast majority of the population would be buying all day, every day. It’s tea, it’s sugar, it’s beans, it’s milk, it’s bread.”
He said the trend of rising grocery prices was visible around the world because the cost of food is rising.
The survey did not include Aldi and Lidl, because they did not operate in the Irish market when it began over a decade ago.
Mr Jewell also said he would like to see one of what he called the “famous four” supermarkets – Dunnes, Superquinn, Tesco and Supervalu – to “break ranks” with the competition and lower their prices, which would then trigger the others to bring their prices down as well.
Retail Ireland, the IBEC group that represents the retail sector, today said food inflation remains very low in Ireland and the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages has fallen since 2008, according to official CSO statistics.
Retail Ireland Director Stephen Lynam said: “There’s very modest inflation in the Irish economy. Official figures from the CSO’s Consumer Price Index (CPI)… shows food and non-alcoholic beverage prices have fallen by 6.3% since 2008.”
Spending power stabilisation
Meanwhile, consumer spending power is set to stabilise this year and improve in 2014, according to the latest edition of IBEC’s Consumer Monitor.
Mortgaged working households would see the greatest gain in spending power, while unemployed households and those on fixed incomes would fare less well.
The employers’ group added that last week’s promissory notes deal is better than expected and should provide real momentum in consumer confidence.
High blood pressure in pregnancy may predict later Ills, A study states
Even transient hypertension linked to heart and kidney disease, diabetes
Women who have high blood pressure during pregnancy are at increased risk for heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes later in life, according to a new study.
The increased risk was seen even in women who had only one or two high blood pressure readings during their pregnancy, the researchers said.
“All of the later-life risks were similar in pregnant women who could otherwise be considered low-risk — those who were young, normal weight, nonsmokers, with no diabetes during pregnancy,” study lead author Dr. Tuija Mannisto, a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in a journal release.
“According to our findings, women who have had high blood pressure during pregnancy or who are diagnosed with high blood pressure in pregnancy for the first time might benefit from comprehensive heart disease risk factor checks by their physicians, to decrease their long-term risk of heart diseases,” Mannisto added.
It’s known that women with preeclampsia — a serious pregnancy-related disease marked by high blood pressure and protein in the urine — are at increased risk for heart and kidney disease.
This study looked at less serious forms of high blood pressure that are much more common in pregnant women. The study included Finnish women who had babies in 1966 and were followed for 40 years.
One-third of the women had at least one high blood pressure reading during pregnancy. These women were 14 percent to 100 percent more likely to develop heart disease later in life than those with normal blood pressure throughout their pregnancy, according to the study in the journal Circulation.
Women with any high blood pressure during pregnancy also had a two to five times increased risk of dying from a heart attack and a 1.4 to 2.2 times higher risk of developing diabetes. Women who had any high blood pressure, with and without measurable protein in the urine, during pregnancy had a 1.9 to 2.8 times greater risk of developing kidney disease later in life.
The study also found that women with high blood pressure during pregnancy but normal blood pressure after pregnancy still had a 1.6 to 2.5 times greater risk of having high blood pressure requiring medication or hospitalization later in life.
Mannisto said future research should explore whether lifestyle changes and post-pregnancy follow-up could change these women’s long-term health.
Pollution’s Link to Birth Weight
Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy raises the odds of having low-birth-weight babies, a large international study has found.
Researchers combined data on more than 3 million full-term singleton births in 14 health centers in nine countries to establish the impact of air polluted with particulate matter less than 10 micrometers in diameter. The report appeared online last week in Environmental Health Perspectives.
Previous studies have linked air pollution and adverse pregnancy outcomes, but the results have been inconsistent.
After adjusting for health and economic factors and trying to minimize variations in reporting from the different centers, the researchers found that the risk of low birth weight was 10 to 15 percent higher in locations with the most polluted air, compared with those with the least polluted air.
If they hold up, the findings will have broad public health implications, according to the lead author, Dr. Payam Dadvand, an epidemiologist with the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona.
“Low birth weight has consequences later in life,” he said. “Low birth weight babies are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other illnesses, and more likely to die earlier. Low birth weight is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide.”
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