Economic round up Wednesday March 16th.

Japan

• Sadly the death toll keeps rising with thousands still missing
• The Fukishima nuclear power plant is on fire and helicopters are being used to douse the flames following a series of explosions.
• The stock market recovered 6% of the 16% losses of the past two days as the panic selling was considered overdone and there will be huge rebuilding opportunities, once the situation is under control.
• It is largely considered that the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe have cost Japan around 2-2.5% GDP

Middle East

• Violence in Bahrain escalating as Government tanks are brought into play, just after a three month state of emergency has been declared
• Bahrain stock market closed
• Cabinet reshuffle recently but Prime Minister who has been in power for the last 40 years, still holds the reins.
• British Nationals told to leave Bahrain
• Libya - Government forces seem to be winning the battle against the rebel factions' who are hopelessly outgunned. The west falls short of imposing a "No fly" zone that would keep Libyan jets out of the battles
• Saudi Arabia, who is responsible for 10% of global oil supplies, has made a decision to send troops into Bahrain alongside the UAE, one of a series of strategies to avoid the unrest spilling over to it's subjects. Increased unrest and potential disruption to supplies there would send the oil price through the roof.

Eurozone

• Portugal has just had its debt rating downgraded from A1 to A3 by the debt rating agency Moodys, with the possibility of more to come

Oil

• The oil price is off of the highs, Opec members have increased production to make up for the shortfall but still at painful levels.
• There isn't a current global shortage of oil but the high price is caused by continued uncertainty regarding supply disruption. Japan has an estimated 170 days supply and the US has good reserves also. Any long term threat to the Saudi supplies though would kill off the global economic recovery for some time and make current high oil levels look cheap