It's indicative of strong underlying demand for housing relative to supply and it's supportive of the view you will not get a major correction in house prices.

Presently it seems unlikely that he will be able to push through the sorts of reforms and spending decisions that are required.

If damage to the infrastructure is found to be reasonably severe, prices will increase over the coming weeks.

The ECB have already indicated that they will look through the volatility of the GDP data and, like us, are quite positive on the growth prospects in the euro zone during the first half of 2006.

Overall we still believe the recovery in the housing market will start to boost household confidence and spending.

This move will not solve the real problem - the oil cannot be refined. Even before the loss of 1.8 million barrels per day of output refineries were struggling to keep up with demand. So increasing the crude supply will not overcome this bottleneck.