The elections in Andalucia have revolutionised Spanish politics with the the worst ever results for the socialist party (PSOE), which has been governing this autonomous community without interruption since 1978, and the entrance of the far right, in the form of the new party Vox, in the Spanish political map.
Wang Tao via Caixin | The meeting between Xi and Trump on Dec. 1 turned out better than expected. According to both the White House statement and Chinese official reports, both sides agreed to enter into immediate negotiations on a broad range of structural issues in the next 90 days, and not impose additional tariffs in the meantime.
Representatives of almost all the countries on the planet are gathering in Katowice, Poland, for the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They will set the course for action on climate change by discussing the implementation plan for the 2015 Paris Agreement which aims to coordinate international effort to halt warming at 1.5°C.
Gary Grappo | America’s latest round of sanctions on Iran’s primary hard currency earner will be felt not only by the Iranian government, but also by Iranian people. Washington’s frequent use of economic sanctions for all matter of offenses could end up diminishing their utility over the long term and empowering bad actors.
The G20 meeting that will take place on Friday 30th November 2018 and into the weekend could serve as an ideal venue for pre-meeting deals. The market is already anticipating trade deals between US and China to counter the surge in protectionism we have seen in the past year. However, Neil Dwane, strategist at Allianz Global Investors has an interesting theory: if trade tensions continue, the US and China could lock each other out and create their own tech ecosystems, forcing the rest of the world to choose one over the other.
William Chislett | In the Franco regime and well into the 1980s, the lion’s share of Spanish banking business in a strongly protected and highly profitable market was in the hands of the so-called Big Seven and those banks, affiliated to or associated with them. The Big Seven have morphed over the past 30 years into the Big Two, as a result of a wave of mergers, after Spain joined the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1986.
The housing market continues to show an intense dynamic. Sales increased 9.7% in September, and drives an accumulated figure of 395,534 operations in the year so far, the largest volume in this period since 2008. Although the vigour is seen in all segments, sales of new houses stand, up 11.5% up to Q318.
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis| Given the concern within the eurozone that the next crisis is just around the corner and that not enough has been done to prevent it, there is a new urgency to learn from our recent past. The precariousness of the Italian situation, and other threats to the single currency, are the best motivation possible to assess what went right or wrong in previous year.
The first figures on the purchase by consumers on Black Friday and the last weekend show significant strength in private consumption. The data published by the firm Customer Growth Customers should be highlighted, which shows that between Thursday and Sunday some 60 billion dollars of products were sold in the US through different sales channels, which represents a 6% increase over the same period last year.
With the economic slowdown and equity market correction in China, hidden domestic debt has come to the attention of global markets again. The vast majority of that debt is in wholly owned shell companies, called Local Government Financing Vehicles (LGFV). Analysts at Julius Baer estimate that only around half of them are businesses with real, sustainable cash flow.