The PNV has won the elections in the Basque Country with 365,634 votes (35.2%) and 27 seats (four fewer than it had); the same 27 seats (six more than it had) won by EH Bildu, the heir of the ETA terrorists (who laid down their arms in 2011) and which obtained 32.5% of the votes. The Basque Parliament will therefore be the most sovereigntist in history, with 68% of the…
Benoit Anne (MFS Investment Management) | Last week, we witnessed some rather unusual activity among major central banks. Indeed, one central bank—the Swiss National Bank—delivered a rate cut, while another—the Bank of Japan—announced a rate hike. Sightings of unsynchronized monetary policy actions at the major central bank level are less frequent than sightings of UFOs in New Mexico. Not only that, but we are starting to get the sense of…
The official data shows that the final execution of the amount received by Spain is very low (18%), that the awarding of projects is decreasing (45% in 2021; only 39% in 2022 and barely 20% on 31 October 2023); and that the vast majority (88%) of the money for the projects (61 of those 100) goes to public institutions (Autonomous Regions, City Councils and public bodies such as Adif, for…
Alicia García Herrero (Natixis) | The importance of the much-expected meeting between President Biden and President Xi in San Francisco cannot be understated, no matter the likely shallowness of the outcomes.The fact that there have only been two face-to-face since Biden took over from President Trump says it all about the importance of this encounter as the pinnacle of a series of meetings to step up dialogue between the two…
The majority of regional governments, including two of the PSOE, have criticised the cancellation of €15,000 million worth of debt. Castilla y León and Murcia have announced that they will take the matter to court. The confirmation that Pedro Sánchez has agreed to forgive €15 billion of debt to Catalonia, plus another €1.3 billion in interest, has triggered a cascade of reactions in the territories that consider it a comparative…
Alicia García Herrero | The Bank of Japan (BoJ) is in the spotlight once again. While the crisis in the Middle East deepens, higher oil prices have lifted the US 10-year Treasury yield beyond 5% although it has retrenched a little once again. At the same, the 10-year JGB yield is capped by the BoJ’s Yield Curve Control (YCC) at 1%. On the back of a further widening interest rate…
Repsol has just announced the signing of an agreement to buy the US renewable energy development group ConnectGen for $768 million (around €715 million) from 547 Energy, the renewable energy development platform of Quantum Capital Group. According to the statement, with this transaction Repsol “strengthens its position as a global player in this energy sector, increases its international presence and contributes to its goal of reaching 20,000 MW installed by…
The company reported revenues of €462 million in the last three months, an increase of 44.5% compared to the same period in 2022. In this period, revenues rose by 0.9% to €10,133 million. However, in the second half of the year as a whole, the company recorded €760 million, 25.9% less than the €1,026 million in 2022, due to the €200 million of capital gains from the sale of the…
The leading indicator of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of June leaves the lowest inflation figure since April 2021. According to information published by the National Statistics Institute (INE), year-on-year inflation stood at 1.9% in June. If this figure is confirmed on 12 July, it would be more than one point lower than the figure recorded in May (3.2%). Yesterday morning, the Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño,…
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.9% in February compared to the previous month and raised its year-on-year rate by one tenth of a percentage point, to 6%, due to the increase in electricity, package holidays and food, which saw their prices rise by 16.6% compared to February 2022 despite the measures taken by the government, according to the final data published on Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute…