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Articles by The Corner

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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.
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Markets 17th April 2012

The best thing that could happen to Repsol

By Alberto Valverde (http://www.capitalmadrid.com) in Madrid | In 1999, Alfonso Cortina, Repsol’s president sworn in by the grace of the then president José María Aznar, accorded the acquisition as a majority shareholder of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) at a price that president of Argentina Carlos Menem took no time in accepting. The late Nestor Kirchner, married to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is now Argentina’s president since succeeding her husband in…

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World economy 17th April 2012

Kirchner’s checkmate to Repsol threatens foreign investment in Argentina

By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | President Cristina Kirchner may have got her way as she finally decided to expropriate Repsol’s YPF unit. The Argentine government confirmed the nationalisation of a 51% stake in YPF, because by decree it considered the oil firm’s activities of ‘public interest’. Tuesday morning, the president of Repsol Antonio Brufau declared that this decision is “illegitimate and unjustifiable, an act preceded by a campaign of harassment, of…

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In Europe 17th April 2012

France, Spain rule the British dream property buy portfolio

LONDON | Ambitious property buyers hoping to pick up a European bargain despite economic turbulence pose a challenge to forecasts of a never-bottoming peripheral real estate market. The ongoing sovereign debt crisis is doing little to deter home buyers as Spain and France remain the firm favorites for those seeking to buy a place in the sun, currency specialists HiFX said on Tuesday. Its Property Hotspots Report crowned France and Spain as the top…

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Interviews 17th April 2012

The euro zone’s gross debt to fall in 2013

By Carlos Díaz Guell, in Madrid | The crisis has led to a rapid accumulation of public debt as a result of the deterioration in economic growth, the functioning of automatic stabilisers, fiscal incentives and public capital support for the banking sector. In the euro zone, the European Central Bank estimates that the ratio of public debt as a percentage of GDP has risen 22 points since 2007 so it reached…

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Interviews 16th April 2012

“The last real estate bubble still to burst in Europe is France’s”

MADRID | In an interview with the Spanish business daily El Economista, head of the Absolute Return department at Edmond de Rothschild Benjamin Melman said the Spanish government’s austerity plan is credible, but the markets doubt that it will help the economy grow. Unlike most market participants, Melman explained why he is more worried about France than about Spain or Italy. After the sovereign risk rally that we saw last week, would…

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Markets 16th April 2012

The euro and the world

By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | Spain is the word. Everybody looks at Spain with suspicion because it could be the source, not the cause, of the next and penultimate euro crisis. The premium risk goes up, Argentina prepares a takeover on YPF, and the King breaks his hip and his grandson shoots himself in the foot. The rumours I hear tell me that the nation’s government does not expect any help…

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In Europe 16th April 2012

Euro area external trade records a €2.8 billion surplus in February

The first estimate for the euro zone trade in goods balance with the rest of the world in February 2012 gave a €2.8 billion surplus, compared with a deficit of -€2.8 billion in February 2011, the statistical office Eurostat said on Monday. The January 2012 balance was -€7.9 billion, compared with -€16.1 billion in January 2011. In February 2012 compared with January 2012, seasonally adjusted exports rose by 2.4% and imports by…

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Companies 16th April 2012

Spain’s CAF awarded the Cincinnati train supply contract

MADRID | The US market once again knocked on the doors of the Spanish railway equipment manufacturer CAF. The company, based in Guipuzcoa (Basque Country) will supply trains for the rail project in the city of Cincinnati, in the State of Ohio. In an initial phase, the company will manufacture a small number of vehicles, which it will also keep updated. So far, CAF has been chosen as preferred supplier and will now negotiate…

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Markets 13th April 2012

Spain could cancel bond sales until after summer

Too true. Undeniably, this was the frightening scene on Friday, which heated the discussion about what’s next for the Kingdom of Spain, with even some Greek bouzouki music on the background. But. Analysts at Sabadell Bolsa reminded the markets of a few facts, probably compelled by the amount of fog gathered during the last days over the state of the Spanish finances and its economic prospects. Although acknowledging that domestic imbalances…

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Markets 13th April 2012

Doomsayers worse than Homer Simpson, Barclays Spain tells foreign brokers

MADRID | Analysts at Barclays in Spain felt so shocked by how little knowledge some market participants can display about the actual situation of the Spanish economy, that decided to act. Why Spain does so poorly compared to the rest of Europe? Well, does it? This is the quick note they wrote on Friday aimed at lending a hand to “some brokers and fund managers, mostly foreign, [who] seem to…