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The Corner
The Corner has a team of on-the-ground reporters in capital cities ranging from New York to Beijing. Their stories are edited by the teams at the Spanish magazine Consejeros (for members of companies’ boards of directors) and at the stock market news site Consenso Del Mercado (market consensus). They have worked in economics and communication for over 25 years.
No Picture

In Europe 27th August 2014

A QE would be key for Germany, France and Italy to overcome their current stagnation

MADRID | By Francisco López | Are there reasons for such optimism after Draghi’s words in Jackson Hole? Yes, but only if Draghi dares to execute a program of sovereign debt purchases immediately. It happens that not all experts are clear that it will be the case. Especially, because the package of measures adopted by the ECB in June has still not been implemented: two TLTROs auctions and the Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) program. Would it not be better to wait to check the effects of these measures?

UBS Debt to GDP Euro area

In Europe 26th August 2014

Peripheral Europe’s bond rally might soon come to an end

MADRID | The Corner | Peripheral equities and bonds have been strongly favored by Draghi’s speech last Friday at Jackson Hole with intense improvements in sovereign credits from Portugal, Spain and Italy, which have reached record lows. In particular, Spain’s 10-year bonds yields are at 2.12% under the 2.38% of comparable U.S. Treasuries and especially today the Spanish Treasury has reduced sharply the interest rates of three- and nine-months bills in an auction of € 3,500 million at historical lows, without entering in negative territory like on the secondary market. Nevertheless, UBS strategists are starting to change their bullish view on peripheral Europe basing on market and fundamental arguments.

Francois Hollande1

In Europe 25th August 2014

French construction sector reduces by 0.4% the GDP growth in 1H14

MADRID | The Corner |Besides naming the reshuffle of his Government, after a dispute over hauling the economy out of stagnation caused his government’s collapse, François Hollande has also committed to announce this week a package of measures to revive the economy, including specific stimulus for the construction activity, especially affected in terms of employment by a law to regulate the real estate market precisely adopted at the beginning of his term. It is estimated that construction activity in France represents about 8% of GDP and 1.2 million jobs.

IFO

In Europe 25th August 2014

Germany’s business climate continues to worsen, but labor market keeps its strength

BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | German IFO index has shown today that business climate continues to worsen. The German Business Sentiment registered its fourth consecutive decline after falling 1.7 points from the previous month to 106.3 points, representing its worst reading since July 2013 decline. “The German economy continues to lose steam”, indicates Hans-Werner Sinn, president of the IFO Institute. “The outlook for the coming months also deteriorated noticeably.”

No Picture

In Europe 25th August 2014

Draghi’s speech marks a turning point in ECB rhetoric

MADRID | The Corner | Although it is not part of ECB’s mandate, last Friday in Jackson Hole, President Mario Draghi spoke about what needs to be done in the euro area to address the problem of high unemployment and weak economic growth. As Barclays analysts believe, the speech “represented a significant breakthrough in the ECB rhetoric and will probably have significant implications regarding the debate just about to start between European government on policies that need to be deployed to avoid a ‘triple-dip recession’ and a fall in outright deflation.”

China's economy slows

World economy 24th August 2014

China as Responsible Stakeholder or Just ‘Guest’?

Via Caixin | By Miriam L. Campanella | Media outlets have published news that based on a World Bank report China’s economy will be the world’s largest in terms of purchasing parity power (PPP) by the end of 2014. Yet, China itself did not welcome the news. The World Bank included a note in its report that the country’s National Bureau of Statistics contested the methodology and rebuffed the report. The Financial Times even reported how China tried to convince World Bank analysts not to use the data. “China wanted to throw this out,” one source said.

barclays viernes

In Europe 22nd August 2014

ECB might wait to take further action

Madrid | The Corner | Despite last bad figures of the Eurozone economy, European stock markets are rising on expectations of ECB further action. However, it seems that ECB will wait to see if the actions taken until now and the TLTROs of September and December will take effect. Meanwhile, both Barclays and UBS analysts trust in these measures to support European recovery.

Gruas torre Pingon1

Spanish economy 22nd August 2014

Spanish construction sector will grow in 2015 for the first time in 6 years

MADRID | The Corner | The construction sector in Spain will grow next year by 1% compared to 2014, according to Cesce, a company specialized in credit services and commercial risk management. Thus this growth will change the downward trend that had maintained the sector during the last six years. According to Cesce, the building will boost the sector but the public works and engineering will have to reach the bottom and it will not start to recover until 2016, when it will reach 3% growth YoY.

No Picture

Spanish economy 22nd August 2014

Spanish Treasury bills trading at negative rates for the first time in history

MADRID | The Corner | Although the eurozone economy in August has become the main focus of investors’ concern, peripheral debt continues to attract them. Yesterday, for the first time in history, the Spanish Treasury 3-months bills traded at negative rates on the secondary market. To date, the Treasury has covered 70% of the expected gross issuance in 2014 of 242,370 million euros, which means a decrease in the average cost of outstanding debt of 14 basis points since December 2013 to stand at 3.59% . However, the Treasury decided yesterday to cancel the auction of bonds and notes scheduled owing to the absence of investors because of the summer season.