JP Marín-Arrese | The Spanish PM Sánchez seeks to regain his dwindling popular support after the crushing defeat in Madrid’s regional elections back in May. At mid-term, he discovered, much to his surprise, the cost of enforcing long-lasting restrictions to overcome the pandemic. The Opposition took advantage of the people’s weariness and fear of lay-offs. His initial steps to stage a large-scale inclusive revolution either faded away or didn’t pay…
Fernando Rodríguez | Ibex 35 companies encountered symbolic opposition to their proposed resolutions at the shareholders’ meetings held this year, according to Georgeson’s annual report on the 2021 season. Only three companies saw an item on the agenda of their meetings held in 2021 defeated: Acerinox, in April, which failed to approve a debt issue for 600 million euros; Amadeus, which saw its remuneration report rejected with 61.48% of votes against; and IAG, which also failed to push through its proposal to reduce the deadline for convening extraordinary general meetings to 15 days.
Judit Montoriol-Garriga (CaixaBank Research)| There is no doubt that the pandemic severely affected the property market on the Mediterranean coast and islands throughout 2020 and the first few months of 2021. The slump in international tourism due to restrictions on travel and uncertainty regarding how the health and economic situation would develop have led to a significant decline in the number of foreigners buying residential properties in Spain, plummeting by…
Almudena Díez | Red Electrica’s Director -Socorro Fernández Larrea- explains why the current price of electricity in Spain (140€ MW/h) has been at record highs for days: Q: How do you explain to consumers that the system can have such sharp fluctuations in the price of electricity that directly affect their pockets? A: Very easily, by telling the truth, if you like. The problem arises because the price of energy…
Banco Sabadell has proposed a redundancy plan for 1,900 employees to the trade unions, which could mean the closure of between 230 and 300 branches. It should help the bank to improve its low profitability, ROE, of 3.1% on equity, far from the cost of capital (which can be up to three times higher). It is also way off the profitability obtained by its Spanish competitors (Santander and BBVA have…
Last August, in an interview with the Times, Telefónica’s chairman, José María Álvarez-Pallete, urged the United Kingdom to follow Spain’s example in fiber optics so as not to miss out on the digital revolution. Pallete remarked that in Spain there is more fiber optic than in the UK, France, Germany and Portugal together, with a penetration of 70%, compared to only 3% in the UK. Yesterday it was learned that…
Fernando González Urbaneja | Prime Minister Sánchez made another celebrity appearance for what they call the opening of the political year (yet more posturing nonsense) with economic content centred on the SMI (Minimum Interprofessional Wage). One of the news items of the event was the absence of the CEOE (Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations) from the session, which highlights how trivial and insignficant the session was. What difference does the…
The fall in unemployment, -2.4%, is the largest ever for the month of August, marking the sixth month of falling unemployment in Spain. In the last 6 months, unemployment in Spain has fallen by 675,000 people and, at the end of August, stands at 3,333,915 people. Nevertheless, Social Security lost an average of 118,004 contributors in August compared to July, bringing the total number of employed people to 19,473,724 contributors,…
J.P. Marín Arrese | Ms Ribera, the Spanish Minister in charge of energy and environment, has warned electricity companies that lack of empathy towards their clients may undermine their stock performance as markets price-in such conduct. It wasn’t just a personal comment. She delivered it in the Parliamentary debate over the upsurge in the price of electricity providing no clue on how empathy-driven markets might work. Yet, one has the…
The consumer price index (CPI) in Spain rose by 0.4% in August to 3.3% year-on-year, the highest rate since October 2012, as a result of higher electricity prices according to the CPI leading indicator published on Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). This advanced indicator, if confirmed, would represent an increase of four tenths of a percentage point compared with the year-on-year rate recorded in July (2.9%) and would…