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Articles by Julia Pastor

About the Author

Julia Pastor
Julia Pastor has broad experience in business writing for Consejeros Media Group at Consejeros, Consenso del Mercado and The Corner. Previously, she worked for the financial news agency GBA and contributed to El País Business. She holds a Master's in Financial Journalism and a degree in English from the Complutense University in Madrid.
Syriza

In Europe 22nd May 2014

Greek politics in thrall to new faces and old ideas

ATHENS | By Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis| SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras was 32 when he burst onto the central political scene in Greece by attracting 10.5 percent of the votes in the Athens municipal election in 2006. At the time, it was unprecedented for such a young candidate, especially one representing a left-wing party, to gain this level of support. Eight years on, and with Tsipras leading SYRIZA, 33-year-old Gabriel Sakellaridis gained 20 percent for SYRIZA in the electoral contest for the Athens mayorship.If we use this as a yardstick to measure the party’s progress, one can only conclude that SYRIZA has made big strides.

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Markets 20th May 2014

Liberbank’s capital increase: connecting the dots

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Medium sized Spanish entity Liberbank, born from four vanished savings banks hit by the crisis, reflected on Tuesday the renowed interest of foreign investors in Spain’s banking sector. The lender was able to turn its 2012’s losses of €1.8 bn into profits of 48 million in 2013.

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In Europe 16th May 2014

Germany and Spain push EZ up

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Germany and Spain are leading the Euro zone’s economic recovery from the EZ’s North and South, respectively. 1Q14 data point out the German economy grew by 0.8% and Spanish by 0.4%, while France’s GDP was flat and Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands went back to recession. Merkel’s following the EC recipes to increase wages and Rajoy’s reforms -despite a big, painful impact on the Spanish population- seem to have bear fruit.

Credit expansion

In Europe 15th May 2014

To control credit expansion is tricky

MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | In his beautiful and easy-reading blog Fixing the Economists, Philip Pilkington recently posted about the difficulties of the monetary policy to stabilize the economy. The most interesting aspect is perhaps that his comments are based on old and forgotten economists who wrote very well and had clear ideas. In this case, he chooses Kaldor and Harrod, two smart Keynesians.

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Spanish economy 14th May 2014

75% of Spanish debt goes to foreign hands

MADRID| By Julia Pastor | Spain rocked in debt markets on Tuesday, raising more than €40bn in public and corporate bonds, something that will hopefully underpin the excellent moment of peripheral sovereign debt. In fact, Italy announced a future issuance of 30-year syndicated bonds following the Spanish lead. International investors bought 73% of the Spanish indexed-inflation bonds and 90% and 83% of Telefonica and Bankia’s securities, respectively.

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Spanish economy 13th May 2014

Spanish Ferrovial gets €945m-worth projects in UK

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | British Ferrovial’s subsidiary Amey was granted with two contracts in the UK on Monday: a 5-year project for maintaining houses and facilities of the Ministry of Defence, and a second one for partly refurbishing the main country’s rail operator.

Banks

In Europe 13th May 2014

EU banks have spent €104bn on tuning-up for stress tests

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | The European banking sector needed to regain markets’ confidence after the crisis and before November stress tests. On Monday, ECB’s vice-president Vitor Constancio assessed their moves as very positive, pointing to a compendium of sale of assets as well as capital and debt issues that reached €104 bn last year. 

PARLAMENO EUROPEO

In Europe 9th May 2014

EU nearer to become a one-voice block

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | For the first time European citizens will elect the successor of the European Commision’s president Jose Manuel Durão Barroso. The upcoming elections of May 25 will have two candidates, one for the socialist party, Martin Schulz, and another for the conservatives, Jean-Claude Juncker. This change of direction is not the result of a reform or a pact in the back room but of a consensus decision. Hopefully, the US could no longer say they don’t have a European direct interlocutor.

Barclays

In Europe 8th May 2014

Why Barclays is saying adiós

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Barclays will create a ‘bad bank’ for non strategic assets such as the Spanish retail banking business, which it intends to get rid of. The British entity arrived to Spain only 40 years ago and became the country’s fifth bank as well as the biggest foreign one. It was severily battered by the crisis, but the difficulties to take profit of its Spain’s investments- they purchased the medium size Banco Zaragozano at €1.1 bn in 2003- and also to win market share from the solid national banking industry’s position are other factors to be considered.

Alibaba

World economy 7th May 2014

What Is Alibaba Worth? That Depends on Tencent

BEIJING |By Jeffrey Towson via Caixin | The valuation of China’s largest e-commerce company is tied to its market share, margins and return on capital, factors its rival can easily impact. Far the low-end of predictions have put Alibaba at US$ 80 billion to US$ 100 billion. The majority of estimates are in the US$150 billion range. And a few analysts are making headlines with predictions of US$ 250 billion and above.