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In Europe 6th November 2014

ECB endorses balance sheet target

MADRID | The Corner |  As expected, the ECB’s Governing Council left the policy rates and the ABSPP, CBPP3 and TLTRO programmes unchanged and expressed its endorsement for increasing the central bank’s balance sheet to its size at March 2012, that is, around €3Tr. Draghi explicitly pointed out that they would evaluate further measures in case that the current purchase programmes are not enough to expand the balance sheet or if the EZ inflation outlook worsens. With policy rates at the zero bound, pressure is mounting on the central bank to act.

luxleaks

In Europe 6th November 2014

Luxleaks: the hunter becomes the hunted

MADRID | By Ana Fuentes | Not an easy week for Jean-Claude Juncker. As the new head of the European Commission he is in charge of fighting flaws in corporate taxation in Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. And yet, he now has to explain how 340 multinationals avoided or potentially avoided millions of euros in tax thanks to signing secret sweet deals with Luxembourg during the 18 years he was the president of this country. The Luxleaks, revealed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) investigation, points to outrageous tax avoidance schemes… which are completely legal.

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In Europe 6th November 2014

ECB: Draghi is bound to act

MADRID | By JP Marín Arrese | Recent events underline the extent to which low confidence is running throughout Europe. The expected upsurge has petered out and investors are losing all faith in political leaders’ ability to redress the situation. As countries seem unable to agree on a joint strategy to foster growth, the onus to achieve this goal increasingly falls on the ECB. Thus, Draghi is bound to act today in order to curb the downward sentiment. Yet, unleashing his firepower over the last months has led nowhere, save for running short on ammunition.

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In Europe 6th November 2014

ECB has some Aces up its sleeve yet, but what about Draghi?

MADRID | The Corner | According to CMC Markets’ analysts, “none of this week’s data from Europe has done anything to persuade markets that the European Central Bank won’t ultimately be forced into taking further action to help boost economic growth in the euro area at some point in the next few months.” Be that as it may, the Governing Council of the ECB will meet on Thursday to keep on working on the EZ economic recovery. Experts at Link Securities say that there won’t be any new measures for the monetary policy, although they believe Mr Draghi will announce the possibility of taking new actions to boost growth.

europa triste lluvia recursoTC

In Europe 5th November 2014

Spanish banks: Expectations get more complicated after eurozone’s slump

MADRID | By Francisco López | The Spanish banks performed well in the latest stress tests. All in all, they achieved acceptable results for the third quarter of 2014. The problem, say the experts, could arise in the  months ahead: the European Commission has drastically reduced its forecasts for the  eurozone’s main economies,and as everybody knows, growth is essential for  banking activity.

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In Europe 4th November 2014

Further depreciation of the Euro due to poor eurozone data

MADRID | By Francisco López | The latest movements within currency markets function as a gauge of the economic momentum in both Europe and the US. The decline of the Euro against the Dollar has increased in the last few days due to poor macroeconomic data in the eurozone, which is in sharp contrast with the vigour shown by the US (who showed growth of 3.5% in the third quarter of 2014).

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In Europe 4th November 2014

Daniele Nouy: “We are ready to assume EU banking supervision”

BRUSSELS | By Alexandre Mato | The head of the ECB’s financial watchdog, Daniele Nouy, asserted her belief before EU legislators that entities will arise stronger in the near future. Moreover, on the eve of the Single Supervisory Mechanism taking control of financial supervision, the French official expects that most of the capital shortfall will be filled by an influx of fresh private money.

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In Europe 3rd November 2014

Getting soaked in corruption

MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | Over the last couple of years, polls have been registering the rise of corruption on the list of the major concerns for Spaniards, and now it is the second largest concern –behind unemployment. At the same time, expectations for the next elections have been plummeting, especially for the major parties, which have been affected most by corruption. Throughout the democratic history of the country, the two biggest Spanish parties usually gathered three quarters of the parliamentary seats. Now, they barely reach half of that amount.