By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | Today is the day: petitioners will submit their requests in the second Long-Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) by the European Central Bank. On Wednesday the auction will be carried out, and the money will be distributed. Most experts estimate an amount slightly lower than the one expected by Mario Draghi (over €500 billion), and many see the LTRO with a positive feeling. However, the fact…
By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | The new elected Cabinet warned in mid-December about a substantial deviation from the planned deficit in last year. Its early forecast pointed to a revised figure of around 8% in terms of GDP, in stark contrast with the 6% target, claimed by the out coming government to have roughly held on line. Final deficit, announced on Monday by the Finance minister, has climbed to…
MADRID | The newspaper El País published an interview in its Sunday edition with Francisco González, president of BBVA and “one of the bankers that travels the most around the world. Some even criticise this obsessive international concern, but it provides him with the ability to know how Spain is perceived abroad.” What are the lessons learned after four years of crisis? This has been a very severe crisis due to a…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | 60,000 professionals and 1,500 companies from more than 200 countries (86 of the participating firms are Spanish) gather since Monday and for a further week in the Mobile World Congress MWC held in Barcelona. It is the seventh meeting edition hosted by the Spanish city, and the first one since Barcelona was awarded the title of Mobile World Capital last July, an honour that…
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | Next Wednesday takes place the second Long-Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) by the European Central Bank. The hot spot is the participation of some British banks, such as Lloyds and RBS (according to FT), which didn’t take part in the last liquidity auction thanks to the central bank of the United Kingdom. The end of its QE programme has forced RBS and Lloyd to forecast…
By Luis Alcaide, in Madrid | In 2011 Spanish exports of goods recorded the highest point after a period of intense growth since 2008. An increase of 16.8% in 2010 has been followed by a positive rate of 15.4% in the last year. The value of exports in 2011 reached the figure of €214.5 billions, which represents a share of 20% of Spain GDP. This share is equivalent to that…
By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | Sector regulators in Spain will melt into a single one, following the government announcement last Friday. Efficiency and savings are portrayed as the main reasons to make the move. While the first one rises a fundamental issue, reducing running costs of existing entities amounts to a trivial one. After all, cutting off expenditure by €4 million per year will not bring much…
On the blog Nada es Gratis (There’s no such thing as free a lunch), the economics professor Gerard Llobet has published an article about what he believes will represent one of the key aspects in the future of Spain. What will businesses do if, as it is predicted, the construction sector will lose weight in the post-crisis Spain? Companies will hardly be able to compete with other countries with much lower…
MADRID | As the daily newspaper El Economista published Friday, China has been intensifying its landing in Spain and has set its sight, among many other things, on the financial sector. A year and a half after the first bank of the Asian giant landed, the Bank of China, which ranks the third, has set its first step in Spain. The entity has obtained the authorisation to operate through its division established…
The Spanish minister of Economy Luis de Guindos’ visits to London earlier this month and to Washington on Friday have borne fruit. Yield of 10-year Spanish sovereign bonds have softly fallen back to the 5pc region (it was 5.6pc), while the CDS spread in comparison to German bonds has tighten and is now 316bp from 380pb last week. The Italian 10-year bond has also behaved in a positive way, with…