Spain’s Economy Minister Nadia Calvino arrives for the closing session of the New Global Financial Pact Summit, Friday, June 23, 2023 in Paris, France. Lewis Joly/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
BRUSSELS/MADRID, Dec 8 (Reuters) – EU finance ministers on Friday picked Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Nadia Calvino to become the next head of the European Investment Bank in a boost for Spain’s clout within the bloc.
If confirmed by the EIB’s board, she would start at the European Union’s financial arm and world’s largest public development bank on Jan. 1, the EIB said in a statement.
Europe’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said minutes earlier that she had withdrawn her candidacy.
“I am grateful and honored to get the support of my fellow finance ministers,” Calvino said, adding that the EIB’s role was set to grow in importance as it funded the green transition and provided financial support to rebuild Ukraine.
The 55-year-old mother of four, a staunch defender of women’s rights, will replace German economist Werner Hoyer, 72, becoming the first woman and first Spaniard to lead the EIB.
Josep Borrell, another Spaniard, has been the EU’s top diplomat since late 2019.
“We are convinced that Nadia Calvino has all the qualities needed to manage the world’s biggest multilateral bank, channelling much-needed financing to businesses, and supporting investment to boost Europe’s competitiveness and sustainable growth,” said the EIB’s Belgian Chairman Vincent Van Peteghem.
Under Hoyer’s stewardship since 2012, the EIB has increased its capital and lending for clean energy and security investments in Europe and financed the development of COVID-19 vaccines.
Soft-spoken and typically measured in public appearances, Calvino has been the economy minister, a post that in Spain encompasses many aspects of public finances, since June 2018, when Pedro Sanchez, a Socialist, first became prime minister.
Widely seen as a technocrat, she is a career civil servant and not a member of Sanchez’s party.
Spain has put Calvino forward for several top jobs since 2019, including chair of the Eurogroup meeting of euro zone finance ministers and head of the International Monetary Fund, a position that eventually went to Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva.
Calvino spearheaded Spain’s economic response to the pandemic with an unprecedented 200-billion euro package in 2020 and has managed the implementation of the European Union’s pandemic relief package.
After holding senior posts in Spain’s Economy Ministry, she went to the European Commission in 2006, and in 2014 was appointed the Commission’s director-general for the budget. She has been the chair of the IMF steering committee since December 2021.
Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout in Brussels, Andrei Khalip and Belen Carreno in Madrid; Editing by Kirsten Donovan
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View of the Portuguese parliament on the day of the vote on the 2024 state budget bill on final reading amid Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s resignation, in Lisbon, Portugal, November 29, 2023. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
LISBON, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Portugal’s parliament on Wednesday extended tax breaks for foreign residents until the end of next year despite criticism that the scheme has stoked housing prices to levels unaffordable to many Portuguese.
Under the extension, applicants must show they have prepared their move to Portugal during 2023, namely through an employment or a housing contract signed by the end of December.
Launched in 2009, the scheme allows people who become residents by spending more than 183 days a year in the country to benefit during a 10-year period from a special 20% tax rate on Portuguese-sourced income derived from “high value-added activities”, such as doctors and university teachers.
Other benefits of the scheme – known as Non-Habitual Resident – include tax exemptions on almost all foreign income if taxed in the country of origin and a 10% flat tax rate on pensions from a foreign source.
It was introduced to attract investors and professionals as Portugal suffered from the financial crisis.
Portuguese citizens who lived abroad for five years or more can also apply.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa promised in October to close the scheme by the end of the year, calling it a “fiscal injustice that is no longer justified”. It was one of the measures included in the draft 2024 budget.
But after Costa’s resignation earlier this month, his ruling Socialist Party backtracked, suggesting it should stay open until the end of next year. The decision was approved on Wednesday in the final vote on the budget bill.
The Socialists said in a statement it was important to “safeguard the legitimate expectations of people who have already made the decision to immigrate or return to Portugal”.
Official data showed that over 74,000 people had benefited from the scheme by the end of 2022. Last year the tax exemptions
cost the state budget more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.65 billion), an annual increase of 18.5%.
($1 = 0.9106 euros)
Reporting by Sergio Goncalves
Editing by Catarina Demony and Gareth Jones
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Apartments are illuminated inside residential buildings at the bank of Berlin-Spandauer-Schifffahrtskanal in Berlin, Germany, November 10, 2023. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
BENGALURU, Nov 24 (Reuters) – German home prices will fall more than previously thought this year and next as high interest rates sap demand, according to analysts in a Reuters poll who expect the supply of affordable homes to worsen and ownership to decline in years ahead.
Once-booming property prices in Europe’s largest economy have declined over 10% since they peaked last year as the European Central Bank hiked interest rates by 450 basis points in just 15 months, ending an about decade-long era of rock-bottom borrowing costs.
Those high interest rates and elevated living costs through soaring inflation in recent years have not only forced many households to choose renting over owning a home, it has also led to the worst crisis in the German property sector in decades.
With some German property developers filing for insolvency, construction activity has dropped over a third from a year ago.
The median view from the Nov. 15-23 Reuters poll of 14 property experts forecast average home prices to drop 8.0% this year and 2.8% next, steeper than the predicted 5.6% fall in 2023 and no growth in 2024 in an August survey.
“Higher interest rates forced about half of all potential buyers out of the housing market … and therefore will lead to price reductions in the German housing market in this and the next few years,” said Sebastian Schnejdar, senior real estate analyst at BayernLB.
“Moreover, there was a significant rise in the overheads for heating, electricity and communal fees, which have also increased the costs of housing for homeowners.”
That bleak outlook was despite the government recently announcing a 45 billion euro ($47 billion) support package for the property sector and measures to encourage house building, including tax incentives.
With overall economic activity expected to remain weak over the coming quarters, it could take a while for the property sector to recover.
The euro zone’s commercial property sector could also struggle for years, posing a threat to the banks and investors who financed it, the ECB said recently.
LAND OF TENANTS
Although 11 of 14 analysts who replied to an extra question said purchasing affordability for first-time homebuyers would improve over the coming year, 10 of 14 contributors said the supply of affordable homes would worsen over the coming 2-3 years.
Meanwhile, more are moving into rented homes, putting pressure on the market and rents are rising faster than salaries.
In the capital, Berlin, where cheap apartments were abundant as recently as a decade ago, the vacancy rate is less than 1%.
The median view of 12 property experts forecast average home rental prices to rise 4.0% or more until 2026.
Still, the proportion of home ownership to renters will decrease over the coming five years, according to 11 of 14 analysts. Three said it would increase.
“In the era of low interest rates, home ownership in Germany had become more popular but even if compared with most other European countries, Germany remains the land of tenants,” said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING.
“Looking ahead, the new (higher) interest rate environment will make it impossible for more people to buy property. As a result, the trend of the last decade from tenants to landlords is over. Moreover, immigration should push up the demand for rental properties.”
(For other stories from the Reuters quarterly housing market polls
Reporting by Indradip Ghosh; Polling by Purujit Arun, Rahul Trivedi and Sarupya Ganguly; Editing by Ross Finley and David Evans
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A sign reads “new tenant wanted” in a window of a commercial building in Frankfurt, Germany, July 19, 2023. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
FRANKFURT, Nov 21 (Reuters) – The euro zone’s commercial real estate market could struggle for years, leaving bank loan books, investment funds and insurers exposed, the European Central Bank said on Tuesday.
Economic weakness and high interest rates have depressed real estate prices over the last year, reducing real estate firms’ profitability and even challenging the commercial property market’s business model.
The sector is not big enough to create a systemic risk for lenders but could increase shocks across the financial system and greatly impact the financial firms, from investment funds to insurance firms, collectively known as shadow banks.
“While the relatively limited size of bank commercial real estate portfolios implies that they are unlikely on their own to lead to a systemic crisis, they could play a significant amplifying role in the event of broader market stress,” the ECB said in a Financial Stability Review article.
Residential mortgages make up about 30% of bank loan books, while commercial real estate accounts for about 10%.
“A negative outcome of this type would also drive large losses in other parts of the financial system which are significantly exposed to CRE, such as investment funds and insurers,” it added.
Commercial real estate transactions were down 47% in the first half of 2023, compared with the same period a year earlier.
That makes it hard to say how far prices have dropped, but the bloc’s largest listed landlords are trading at a discount of over 30% to net asset value, their largest such discount since 2008, the ECB said.
It said a sample of bank loans to real estate firms implies the recent rise in financing costs may cause the share of loans extended to loss-making firms to double to as much as 26%.
If the tighter financing conditions persist for two years as markets expect, and firms are required to roll over all maturing loans, this number would increase to 30%.
“There are substantial vulnerabilities in this loan book, particularly when considering that it is expected that both higher financing costs and reduced profitability will persist for a number of years,” the ECB said.
“Business models established on the basis of pre-pandemic profitability and low-for-long interest rates may become unviable over the medium term.”
Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; editing by Barbara Lewis
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and France’s President Emmanuel Macron attend a tea ceremony at the Guandong province governor’s residence, in Guangzhou, China, Friday, April 7, 2023. Thibault Camus/Pool via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights
BEIJING, Nov 20 (Reuters) – China wants more French companies to invest in the country and hopes France will provide a fair and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese firms, President Xi Jinping said on Monday.
Xi made the comments in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese state television reported, fortifying ties with its European trading partner after Macron visited China in April.
China faces an electric vehicle subsidy investigation by the European Union and a looming probe into its steelmakers. Meanwhile, several European countries have complained about China’s opaque laws and rules regarding foreign companies in the country.
“China is willing to maintain high-level exchanges with the French side,” Xi said, adding that he welcomed more French products entering the Chinese market.
Xi also said China was willing to strengthen cooperation with France at the United Nations and other multilateral institutions. China took over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) this month.
The leader of the world’s second-largest economy also called on France to play a constructive role in promoting the positive development of China-EU relations, as ties have been strained over issues ranging from the EU’s push to reduce supply chain reliance on China to the war in Ukraine.
“China and the European Union should remain partners for mutually beneficial cooperation,” Xi said in the call.
The two leaders also exchanged views on the conflict in Gaza, and agreed that it was imperative to avoid a further deterioration of the situation, in particular an even more serious humanitarian crisis, state television reported.
Reporting by Ethan Wang and Bernard Orr; Editing by Toby Chopra and Alex Richardson
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LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) – World stocks fell for the first time in five sessions, oil slipped and the dollar saw a slight lift on Thursday, as markets continued to acclimatize to falling borrowing costs after nearly two years of relentless gains.
Europe’s moves saw the STOXX 600 (.STOXX) slip from a more than one-month high, Wall Street look set for an early dip, and Taiwan’s dollar rise after China’s President Xi Jinping and U.S. counterpart Joe Biden agreed to reopen key military communications channels between the two superpowers.
Xi also underscored the point by saying China would not “fight a cold war or a hot war with anyone”.
Global markets have rallied sharply this month as inflation data out of the United States and parts of Europe, such as Britain, have reinforced hopes that major central banks are now done raising borrowing costs.
Robust U.S. retail sales figures on Wednesday were a reminder that it might not be a straight line move, however, with the focus now squarely on weekly U.S. jobless claims data later and a monthly euro zone inflation print on Friday.
“If you don’t get confirmation of the slowing economic direction from every single piece of data every single day we risk running out of momentum on the big trades,” Societe Generale FX strategist, Kit Juckes, said.
“Until we get to the point where rate cuts are just around the corner, everything is going to be very stop-start. The dollar sell-off is stop-start, the bond market rally is really stop-start and the equity market is all over the place.”
Key government bond market borrowing costs resumed their broad downward trend on Thursday, driven by increasing confidence that rate cuts are coming next year.
Germany’s 10-year bond yield dipped to 2.62% but held above the previous day’s two-month low of 2.568%, while sterling sank to a six-month low against the euro as dealers in London inched closer their predictions on when the Bank of England (BoE) will start cutting rates. EUR/GVD
Many now think it might be as soon as May although BoE policymaker Meg Greene warned on Thursday that investors are missing the message that central banks have been pushing recently that interest rates will remain higher for longer.
“I think markets globally haven’t really clocked on to this,” Greene told Bloomberg Television, adding that the BoE was not talking about cutting rates.
CHINA PROPERTY
Asian stocks fell overnight as new Chinese data showed continued weakness in its problem-hit property sector which dented recent optimism about a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.
While data this week showed China’s industrial and retail sectors are now making a comeback, figures have also shown a sharp drop in property investment and weak home prices, underscoring the ongoing drag the sector is having.
There was mixed news from Japan too, where exports grew for a second straight month in October but at a sharply slower pace due to slumping China-bound shipments of chips and steel.
“The weak economic data from both countries indicate the fact that the global economy is slowing down, highlighting ongoing macro headwinds that businesses face,” said Tina Teng, market analyst at CMC Markets.
XI AND BIDEN
Australian shares (.AXJO) ended their day down 0.7% as strong wage data indicated that inflationary pressures there are still running high.
Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) dipped 0.3%, moving into reverse after it, along with the main MSCI Asian and emerging market indexes, all posted their biggest gains in a year on Wednesday.
Chinese stocks showed some disappointment at Xi and Biden’s first meeting in years, with Shanghai’s blue-chip CSI300 index (.CSI300) closing down 1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index (.HSI) ending 1.3% lower.
While the two leaders agreed to resume military-to-military communications and cooperate on anti-drug policies, a sign ties are improving, some investors were disappointed at a lack of other breakthroughs in the talks.
The MSCI main 47-country global stocks index (.MIWD00000PUS) was down for the first time in five sessions after a near 8% surge this month.
Wall Street futures pointed to a slightly weaker start there too, although there was modest relief that the Senate had overwhelmingly approved a temporary funding measure to avert another U.S. government shutdown for now.
Money market traders have now fully priced in that the Federal Reserve will keep U.S. interest rates steady in December. They see the first rate cut of the cycle in May.
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes was back under 4.5% compared with its U.S. close of 4.537% on Wednesday. The two-year yield hovered at 4.88% compared with a U.S. close of 4.916%.
In currencies, the euro was flat at $1.0848, having gained 2.5% in a month, while the dollar index , which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies of other major trading partners, was fractionally higher.
Oil traders, meanwhile, nudged U.S. crude down 0.3% to $76.55 a barrel. Brent crude was at $80.90 per barrel while safe-haven gold was slightly higher at $1,965 per ounce .
Additional reporting by Julie Zhu in Hong Kong; Editing by Christina Fincher and Mark Potter
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A view shows the logo of the European Central Bank (ECB) outside its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany March 16, 2023. REUTERS/Heiko Becker/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
FRANKFURT, Nov 7 (Reuters) – Euro zone banks should factor in the risk of a further fall in property prices when they make provisions and plans about their capital, the European Central Bank’s chief supervisor Andrea Enria said on Tuesday.
The European property market has come under pressure from the ECB’s steepest and longest streak of increases in interest rates, which are now at record highs.
With real estate prices already falling in several countries, most notably Germany, where there had been a boom during the last decade of low interest rates, Enria told lenders to brace for more pain.
“The current higher interest rate environment could put further downward pressure on office and house prices, making it harder for commercial property owners and households to service their debt,” Enria told the European Parliament.
“Banks should account for these risks in their provisioning practices and capital planning.”
As the euro zone’s top banking supervisor the ECB sets capital requirements for banks, and has been known to push back on their plans to pay dividends or buy back shares.
Fuelled by low interest rates and massive ECB cash injections, billions were funnelled into property in the last decade, particularly in richer European countries such as Germany, France and the Netherlands.
A sudden surge in inflation over the past two years has forced the ECB to tighten the purse strings and put an end to the run in real estate prices, tipping developers into insolvency as bank financing dries up, deals freeze and prices fall.
Euro zone banks have been curbing access to credit, particularly mortgages, and demand from households and companies is also falling, ECB data shows.
Enria, an Italian, is set to step down as the chairman of the ECB’s Single Supervisory Board at the end of the year, when he will be replaced by Germany’s Claudia Buch.
Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Jan Harvey
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A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan
A more modest yearend schedule of Treasury debt sales than many feared helped bonds rally overnight while the Bank of Japan closed out a scary October for world markets on Tuesday with another modest tightening tweak.
A hectic Halloween of policy meetings, big macro reports and another slew of company earnings is seeing most world markets shave off the sharpest edges of a rough month, just as the Federal Reserve kicks off its latest two-day gathering.
But relief in Treasuries, the villain of the piece for several weeks, is probably the most significant marker for the remainder of the year.
On Monday, the U.S. Treasury said it expects to borrow $776 billion in the fourth quarter of the year, less than $852 billion it has previously indicated and below Wall St forecasts.
Officials said the reduced tally was down to an increased revenue estimate and that was mainly because tax payments from California and other states that had been previously deferred due to natural disasters were now flowing to Treasury coffers.
Given that the announcement in July of third-quarter borrowing of more than trillion dollars was largely responsible for the bond market selloff since, the more benign forecast for the final three months dragged 10-year benchmark yields back further from bruising 16-year peaks above 5%.
With hopes the resurfaced risk premium for holding long-term debt may ease as a result, 10-year yields were as low as 4.82% on Tuesday – some 20 basis points off recent highs.
Even though the Bank of Japan further loosened its grip on long-term interest rates on Tuesday by re-defining 1.0% as a loose “upper bound” rather than a rigid cap, markets took some solace it wasn’t more draconian. Even though 10-year Japanese government yields jumped as much as 7bps to 0.96%, the yen weakened again sharply past 150 per dollar and the Nikkei 225 index of leading stocks rose (.N225).
And there were further soothing noises for world bonds, even if not for global growth, from surprisingly weak Chinese business surveys for October. Chinese stocks (.CSI300) underperformed and closed lower yet again.
Adding to the mix on Monday was a retreat in crude oil prices to their lowest since the October 7 attacks on Israel, as Israel’s land invasion into Gaza advanced slowly and pressure to up stuttering humanitarian aid to the besieged citizens there increased.
Crude prices steadied around $83 per barrel on Tuesday, with market speculation about a rise in U.S. shale oil output circulating following recent major acquisitions by Big Oil firms.
In Europe, falling energy stocks (.SXEP) bucked a more positive wider market due to a 4.2% fall in BP (BP.L) after third-quarter earnings missed analysts’ forecasts.
Overall, the picture pointed to another positive day for Wall Street stocks, with futures marginally positive ahead of the open as the Fed meeting gets underway. The S&P500 (.SPX) rebounded after an awful month on Monday to clock its best day’s gain since August – but it remains on course to record its third straight month of losses since 2020.
The U.S. central bank is expected to leave policy rates unchanged again on Wednesday as it assess the final-quarter trajectory of inflation and the economy after a bumper Q3.
With the October jobs report due Friday, the latest consumer confidence reading for this month tops the economic diary on Tuesday in the meantime. The likes of pharma giant Pfizer and construction bellwether Caterpillar are on a heavy earnings slate.
In other positive news, General Motors (GM.N) and the United Auto Workers struck a tentative deal late on Monday, ending the union’s unprecedented six-week campaign of coordinated strikes that won record pay increases for workers at the Detroit Three automakers.
Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S. markets later on Tuesday:
* U.S. Oct consumer confidence, Oct Chicago business survey, Oct Dallas Fed service sector survey, Q3 employment costs, Aug house prices
* Federal Reserve starts 2-day policy meeting
* U.S. corporate earnings: Pfizer, Caterpillar, AMD, Amcor, Amgen, Marathon, MSCI, Caesars, Global Payments, Sysco, Eaton, Franklin Resources, Allegion, Assurant, AMETEK, Equity Residential, GE Healthcare, First Solar, Incyte, Paycom, Match, Bio-Techne, WEC Energy, Hubbell, Echolab, Zebra, ONEOK, Xylem
* U.S. Treasury auctions 12-month bills
By Mike Dolan, editing by Christina Fincher, <a href=”mailto:mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com” target=”_blank”>mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com</a>. Twitter: @reutersMikeD
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Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.
A plane belonging to Garuda Indonesia is seen on the tarmac of Terminal 3, SoekarnoÐHatta International Airport near Jakarta, Indonesia April 28, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
JAKARTA, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Indonesia on Friday flew its first commercial flight using palm oil-blended jet fuel, as the world’s biggest producer of the commodity pushes for wider use of biofuels to cut fuel imports.
Operated by flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, the Boeing 737-800NG aircraft carried more than 100 passengers from the capital Jakarta to Surakarta city about 550 kilometres (342 miles) away, Garuda Indonesia CEO Irfan Setiaputra said.
“We will discuss further with Pertamina, Energy Ministry and other parties to ensure this fuel is commercially reasonable,” Irfan said during a ceremony, adding the plane was set to return to Jakarta later on Friday.
Garuda conducted several tests including a flight test on the new fuel earlier this month and an engine ground test in August.
The palm-oil blended jet fuel is produced by Indonesian state energy firm PT Pertamina (PERTM.UL) at its Cilacap refinery, using hydroprocessed esters and fatty acid (HEFA) technology and is made of refined bleached deodorized palm kernel oil.
Pertamina has said the palm-based fuel emits less atmosphere warming greenhouse gases compared with fossil fuels, and palm oil producing countries have called for the edible oil to be included in feedstock for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
“In 2021, Pertamina successfully produced 2.0 SAF in its Cilacap unit using co-processing technology and was made of refined bleached deodorized palm kernel oil with production capacity 1,350 kilolitres per day,” said Alfian Nasution, a director at Pertamina.
Meanwhile, Harris Yahya, a director at Energy Ministry said the use of biofuel would lower the greenhouse effect.
The aviation industry, a major emitter of greenhouse gases, is looking for ways to cut its carbon footprint by using alternative fuels.
Experts say the industry will need 450 billion litres of SAF a year by 2050, if the fuel is to account for around 65% of the mitigation needed to achieve net-zero targets.
But some countries have raised concerns over the potential for deforestation in the production of palm oil from plantations. The European Union has imposed import restrictions on the commodity.
In 2021, Indonesia ran a test flight with the same fuel on an aircraft made by state-owned Dirgantara Indonesia, flying from the city of Bandung in West Java to the capital Jakarta.
Indonesia has mandated 3% biofuel blending by 2020 for jet fuel, but implementation has been delayed.
Reporting by Bernadette Christina; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor and David Evans
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M&G plc logo is seen on a smartphone in front of displayed same logo in this illustration taken, December 1, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters) – M&G Investments (MNG.L) is seeking to close its 565 million pounds ($685 million) M&G Property Portfolio due to declining interest in open-ended strategies from UK investors, the company said on Thursday.
Launched in 2005, the fund was set up to provide retail investors access to returns from high quality commercial property that had previously been out of reach of all but the wealthiest of buyers.
But interest in open-ended property fund structures has waned after several bouts of political and economic turmoil including the global financial crisis, Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and last September’s “mini-budget” chaos triggered mass exit calls, threatening firesales and the viability of funds like M&G’s.
Upon regulatory approval, an orderly sales programme of the Fund’s assets will begin, with the objective of ensuring that fair market prices are achieved, M&G said.
In the current market conditions, M&G expects it will take approximately 18 months for the majority of the portfolio to be sold and money will be returned to clients when cash becomes available throughout this period.
“The decision has been made in the best interests of all investors,” the company said.
($1 = 0.8243 pounds)
Reporting By Sinead Cruise, editing by Karin Strohecker
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