Julia Pastor, Author at The Corner

In Europe 18th March 2014

Spain’s media limited freedom of expression is a recipe for disaster

OP-ED By Julia Pastor | The decapitation of Spain’s three main newspapers – El País, El Mundo and La Vanguardia –in last three months is a symbol of the country’s weak democracy. This is, however, the tip of the iceberg. Spanish freedom of expression’s faults touch not only big and well-known media groups, but also modest-sized blogs such as Nada es gratis (No Free Lunch in English) in which Spanish economists try to explain to the citizens what is happening in the national economy and suggest possible solutions. Three of that platform’s founders and editors recently left their posts after disagreements with the managing team and the government.

In Europe 14th March 2014

Spain Wants A More Efficient Tax System- But Will It Be Socially Equal?

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Spain could cook a historical fiscal reform to simplify complex patchwork of tax rates at national and regional level- there are more than 1,000 tax exemptions, even more than in the UK, which was the European country with the highest freedom from taxation-, and increasing revenue collection efficiency. Spanish market watchers are looking forward to see reforms in the 444 pages report presented to the cabinet by an experts committee. However, critics fear that social policies, especially those focused on employment, quality of labour force or further specialization, will be ignored. As the rest of euro zone’s southern countries walk over the same path of Spain’s, a real harmonized fiscal union still seems too far.

In Europe 14th March 2014

Spain Will Use Spies To Watch Over Banks’ Abuses

MADRID | By The Corner Team | Scandals such as Bankia’s selling preference shares to thousands of Spaniards who had no clue of what they were buying will not happen again, hopefully, if this new plan works: the country’s regulator will send spies to watch how the banks sell financial products, and to what extent their staff knows what they are. The Netherlands, Belgium and France have already implemented this ‘007 method’.

In Europe 13th March 2014

Spain’s Warning Signs Of Japanisation- Shall We Buckle Up?

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Amid the debate on the euro zone’s eventual japanisation due to low inflation levels, we wonder if Spain could be the first member state with severe signs of this illness. Inflation is near 0% since six months ago and markets’ expectations suggest an average price index scarcely over 1% for next five years, and under 2% in a decade. Along with Portugal, Spain is the EU economy having more price indicators’ components in red year-on-year rates, namely 40% against 20% of Europe’s average. That means that 2 out of 3 goods in Spaniards’ shopping basket are affected by deflation. Although good for the country’s competitiveness, there is a risk in the process of public as well as private debt deleveraging.

In Europe 10th March 2014

Europe’s searching of an impossible balance

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Expressions such as “two-speed Europe”, or “the gap between core and peripheral European countries” have been hitting the headlines for ages. The reality is that state members have never grown at the same pace and they are not likely to ever do so. Expectations about the end of crisis suggest that not all of them will exit at the same time; imbalances will continue one way or another. British economy could reach 2008 pre-recession growth peak next summer, while EU members like Italy, Croatia or Slovenia may see imbalances increase. Germany’s eagerness for saving and also investing out of Europe could postpone the problem.

In Europe 5th March 2014

The Bizarre Twist of Spain’s Unemployment Data

MADRID | By Julia Pastor and Fernando G. Urbaneja | 1,949 unemployed less in Spain in February. Agreed that it is just a drop in the ocean of almost 6 million of jobless Spanish people, but the figure symbolizes an improvement. A tiny one, but positive at last. For the first time in four years, February’s affiliation to social security increased in 40,000 people, which means reaching a yearly positive rate of 0.4%. If we take a look at the number of affiliated, though, it makes a total of 16.12 million in Spain’s labour market, which surprisingly is one of the worst data in all XXI century.

Spanish economy 5th March 2014

Spanish Santander’s long-term debt rating sees one notch rise

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Moodys considers that the biggest euro zone bank Santander has sufficiently diversified its sovereign risk and it has become stronger to face operating risks in Spain, thus increasing entity’s long-term credit in one notch, from Baa1 to Baa2. According to BEKA finance’s analysts in Madrid after this improvement Spanish economy’s risk profile will not be anymore the main and almost only variable limiting Santander’s rating to soften. The bank got a big boost which and announced a €1.5 billion issue of convertible bonds to reinforce its capital.

World economy 4th March 2014

Spanish Abengoa’s yieldco IPO at Nasdaq could be of $1bn

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Abengoa’s strategy for 2013 included the creation of a company holding concessional assets to go public in the U.S. market. The first step came on Monday when the Spanish firm submitted a draft registration statement to SEC for a yield company. So-called yieldcos in Wall Street’ jargon are financial vehicles that hold assets generating stable and predictable cash flow. The price of the operation remains unknown but its goal would be to raise about $1 billion for the company to continue reducing debt. The Seville-based company specialised in technology solutions for energy and environment sectors is listed in Nasdaq since October 2013.

In Europe 4th March 2014

Good Jobs Report in a Deeply Unemployed Spain

MADRID | By The Corner Team | The Spanish government celebrated February’s job report on Tuesday, with jobless rate fall by 1,949 people from the previous month to 4.81 million. Although figures show that the worst of the recession is already behind the curve, critics point out there is still a deep employment fragility, with job creation mainly happening in Andalousia’s temporary agricultural sector.

In Europe 3rd March 2014

Praising recovery in tailor-made Global Forum Spain

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, architectural symbol of modernity and refurbishment, has been chosen to hold the international forum celebrating economic recovery. Among VIP guests: IMF’s head Christine Lagarde, OECD’s secretary Ángel Gurría and Eurogroup’s president Jeroen Dijsselbloem, along with four major international Spanish companies such as Inditex, Telefónica, BBVA and Ibedrola. However, social agents and NGOs who had a key role during the crisis supporting families in severe need have not been invited.

Articles by Julia Pastor

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Julia Pastor