Articles by Fernando Barciela

About the Author

Fernando Barciela
Fernando Barciela has been a regular collaborator for Spain's leading daily El Pais' business section since 1994. He is also a regular collaborator on foreign policy. For Grupo Consejeros he interviews the top executives of Spain's listed companies. He was a correspondent with Diario de Noticias, Portugal's leading daily newspaper, in 1987-2004. He has a degree in Business Science and Journalism from the Complutense University.

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Spain’s Elections: Like Portugal’s, But Worse

Many people feared that the outcome of the December 20 elections in Spain would be difficult to manage. But the final situation is much worse than expected. As soon as the recount began after the voting, the conservatives of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) lost their hopes of forming a majority government with Citizens (Ciudadanos). Spain is now, undeniably, facing a period of difficult coalition-building after yesterday’s elections. And this is a very worrisome situation for the country as uncertainty is likely to increase, affecting the mood of investors and companies.


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LatAm anti populists have won a battle, but not the war

The world, mostly Latin America governments lined up with social markets economies and the US, like Mexico, Peru, Colombia or Chile, have welcomed the victories of anti populist forces in Argentina and Venezuela. In a run-off election on November 22, voters in Argentina elected centrist Mauricio Macri to succeed peronist Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, with 51.4% of the vote. In Venezuela, the opposition won a two-thirds majority of 112 seats in the 167-seat National Assembly, 67% of the seats, despite winning only 56% of the popular vote.


What Spain's labour market recruitment data hides

Rajoy’s Rivals Try To Downgrade Spain’s Success In Creating Jobs

Fernando Barciela | Spanish unemployment fell again in November, reversing a three-month upward trend. Last month, 27,000 fewer people were registered as jobless than in October, taking the total number of unemployed to 4.15 million. This is good news, given that at the peak of Spain’s economic crisis, the jobless rate reached a record 26.9%.  There has also been a rise in Social Security affiliations, which increased from 16.3% in 2013 to 17.2% in October 2015.


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Abengoa: Another Story Of Sudden Insolvency

Fernando Barciela | Throughout this current year, 99 companies across the world have defaulted, the second highest figure in the decade after the 2009 crisis, according to S&P. Spanish firm Abengoa could be added to the list.