Spanish labour costs grow sharply in Q1: social security contributions +3.6% and wages +1.7%
Nominal labour costs in Spain have increased +2.1% in Q1 2019, compared to 0.9% in Q4 2018. It is the largest increase since Q4 2103 (+2.1%).
Nominal labour costs in Spain have increased +2.1% in Q1 2019, compared to 0.9% in Q4 2018. It is the largest increase since Q4 2103 (+2.1%).
The new Housing Credit Law, better known as the Mortgage Law, came into effect in Spain this week. The new legislation has been delayed more than three years and stirred various controversies. Spain is thus the last European country to transpose Brussels’ directive.
The new capital requirements regulation (regulation CRR2 and directive CRD V) could improve the capital levels in European banks through its treatment of software intangibles, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. The changes would not come into effect until 2021/2022; depending on what the EBA says in 2020.
Baker McKenzie | There were no flotations in Spain in the first half of 2019, consolidating the progressive decline in these operations since 2017.
The European Central Bank will have to relax its monetary policy again, possibly through further reductions in interest rates or the purchase of assets, if inflation in the eurozone does not meet its target. Chairman Mario Draghi underlined that the ECB’s the limits are flexible because the its legal powers allow it to deploy tools that are both “necessary and proportionate”.
Alphavalue | The ECB´s reflationary strategy has caused doubts among investors about the business plans of Spanish banks, in particular Caixabank, articulated in terms of the improvement in the net interest margin over the expected future rise in interest rates (which, incidentally, we do not expect any time soon).
Renta4 | In Spain, the Technical Advisory Committee of the Ibex decided in its ordinary meeting, as expected, to include MasMovil in the index from 24 June, replacing Tecnicas Reunidas.
Despite weak employment creation data, analysts at DWS point out that the US labour market probably remains too vigorous in general to justify the Fed cutting interest rates.
José Luis M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) | This week the Bank of Spain published an interesting analysis of household financial flows and balances at the end of 2018. Families have continued to reduce bank debt to 96% of gross disposable income (gross disposable household income – GDHI) and 59% of GDP.
The German auction of 5G frequencies ended this week. Telefonica’s subsidiary in Germany was awarded a total 90MHz, for a cost of 1.425 Bn€, 22% of the total raised by the auction of 6.55 Bn€, higher than the expected 5 Bn€. Telefonica Deutschland was awarded 2 blocks in the 2GHz band and 7 blocks in the 3.6 GHz band. The assignment of the 2 GHz block will happen on 1 January 2021 and the other on 1 January 2026.