Italy’s budget deficit almost doubled last year as the economy shrank the most since World War II. The shortfall rose to 5.3 percent of gross domestic product compared with 2.7 percent in 2008. Italy is a “less risky fiscal sinner” than Greece or Spain because of its lower deficit, higher private savings and “still apparently strong” fiscal policies, which all “limit the sovereign risk” to the country, Michael Saunders and other economists at Citigroup (NYSE:C) in London said last month. -Bloomberg
PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) said Monday it continues to expect 2010 through 2012 core constant currency earnings per share growth of 11% to 13% after it closed its $7.8 billion acquisition of its two largest bottlers. In other news, Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH) reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit, even though its earnings declined 18% to $179 million, or 40 cents per share. Analysts had expected Dish to earn 32 cents a share. Dish also gained more subscribers for the third straight quarter. Shares advanced over 2.5% ahead of the bell. –Daily Finance
Seeking $335,000 in unpaid advertising bills, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) filed suit against a small Internet site in Ohio in October. Google never expected the response it got. Last month, the small Internet site countered with a 24-page antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing the search-engine giant of a litany of monopolistic abuses. But what really caught Google’s attention was the Internet site’s legal counsel: It was Charles "Rick" Rule, long the chief outside counsel on competition issues for Google archrival Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). To Google, the pattern is clear: It contends Microsoft is embarking on a proxy war against it through various apparently unrelated cases, preparing the ground for a broader antitrust assault of some sort on Google’s dominance in the online world. "It’s become clear that our competitors are scouring court dockets around the world looking for complaints against Google into which they can inject themselves, learn more about our business practices, and use that information to develop a broader antitrust complaint against us," said a Google spokesman, Adam Kovacevich. –The Wall Street Journal
Real consumer spending increased a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in January to the highest level since May 2008 in a further sign of a modest economic recovery, the Commerce Department estimated Monday. Adjusted for inflation, real spending on goods increased 0.8%, while spending on services remained anemic, rising 0.1%. After adjusting for inflation, after-tax incomes fell 0.6% in January, mostly due to large non-withholding tax payments reflecting higher incomes from investments and bonuses in 2009. With spending rising faster than incomes, the personal savings rate fell to 3.3% of disposable income from 4.2% in December. -MarketWatch
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