To Wall Street’s Favorite Media, Spain Looks Quite Sexy Again

Many in Spain still remember a highly controversial report about poverty in their country published by The New York Times last year.

Back then, the premium risk was rocketing and some the most authorized voices warned about the country leaving the euro. “IAG Plans for Spain’s Possible Euro Exit,” by the WSJ; was one of the multiple scary headlines.

However, since October the news flow happens to be making a U-turn. Although everyone acknowledges that unemployment is still a major challenge, Goldman Sachs recently published a report entitled “Mea culpa or mea maxima culpa?,” where it clearly admits how wrong they were about Spain.

Nowadays the Wall Street Journal rather talks about an “export prowess” that will lift Spain from recession. Thanks to selling its products and services abroad, Spain has been able to report 0.1% growth of its GDP in the three months through September after nine straight quarters of contraction, as the journal pointed out. “While that is hardly enough to make much of a dent in the country’s staggering unemployment rate anytime soon, the trend is going in the right direction,” a recent article said.

Since Spanish economy shows signs of improvement and after the ECB pledged to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro, investors’ appetite for Spanish companies has increased. And so has media attention:
“Investors Show Interest in Bankia,” as appeared in the WSJ.

“Spain Free-for-All Pitting Apollo Against Blackstone,” Bloomberg said about funds seeking to “take advantage after prices plunged, saddling banks with soured loans and leaving companies short of capital.”

The pun “Spailout” is not heard in the media anymore either. On the contrary, the end of the banking bailout and how Spain and Ireland would move out alone has made big headlines. Bloomberg also focused on how Spain needs to tighten governance of savings banks and the concerns of the European Union because the Spanish economy is weighing on its banks and that is the “main risk factor” as lending shrinks and real estate prices fall.
In this sense, the American network recently featured a video about how Spain should act more like Germany and viceversa. Spain seems no longer the piece dragging the EU’s growth, but a potential source of business.

About the Author

Ana Fuentes
Columnist for El País and a contributor to SER (Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión), was the first editor-in-chief of The Corner. Currently based in Madrid, she has been a correspondent in New York, Beijing and Paris for several international media outlets such as Prisa Radio, Radio Netherlands or CNN en español. Ana holds a degree in Journalism from the Complutense University in Madrid and the Sorbonne University in Paris, and a Master's in Journalism from Spanish newspaper El País.

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