French housing market and others, effects of inflation and rising fuel costs: The Guardian

AS FAR as the French housing market is concerned, this article in today's UK Guardian very nicely summarises a lot of the news on the french property market and economic factors that influence it that we've been telling our readers about in recent weeks.

The article also takes a look at the the markets in Germany, Italy, Spain and Ireland.

Regardless of the differing states of each of the economies covered in the report, there is a common, recurring theme.

Consumer confidence has been severely impacted as a result of rising inflation in the Eurozone and the ever increasing cost of fuel.

Rising inflation has seen purchasing power severely hit.

In turn, a cooling off and worse in housing markets around Europe has been commonplace.

Countries such as France and Italy beat their chest, proud of having escaped the credit crunch, but none are likely to see off the effects of a global downturn without considerable hardship.

On the upside, we're told that car crashes in Rome are on the decrease at the end of each month as Italians run out of money to buy petrol.