It was known yesterday that in January the financing to the Chinese economy reached a historical maximum in volume, growing almost 200% since December and exceeding the most optimistic forecasts. This indicator is one of the main tools that the government monitors to stimulate growth.
The Spanish gas system operator, Enagas, is exploring its options of buying shares in the US listed company Tallgrass Energy. According to various sources in the sector, the public company, whose main shareholder is the state through SEPI, has been working discreetly on this operation since last November. In any case, the process is at a preliminary stage, and there are others interested in the US company.
According to data of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which links the increase in poverty to the length of contracts, in a comparison of 18 European countries, Spain has registered the largest proportion of contracts of 6 months or less. According to its forecasts, Spain’s unemployment rate will fall from 15.5% in 2018 to 14% in 2020.
Until now, cryptocurrencies have only been a speculative bubble which burst, leaving bankrupt millions of people which had believed in the tale of anarcho-liberalism, which claims that they were the new international gold standard. But with 1500, or a million, possible candidates, it is difficult for states to take this data as a guarantee of stability.
Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez called snap elections for April 28th after holding an extraordinary cabinet meeting in Madrid. The ballot follows Sanchez’s defeat in parliament over his 2019 fiscal plans. Madrid avoids May 26 “Super Sunday,” with local, regional and EU elections the same day.
EU Parliament elections on 23–26 May 2019 look set to boost the share of populist parties in parliament by a meaningful amount and have therefore drawn the attention of financial markets of late. However, analysts at PIMCO think the election is unlikely to result in meaningful change for European politics or the markets for several reasons.
via The Conversation | Numerous amendments are being negotiated in the UK parliament in an attempt to break the Brexit stalemate. There does not seem to be a clear majority for any specific way forward with Brexit and the parliamentary arithmetic has so far worked against the government. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking before Britain leaves the EU without a deal in place and reverts to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
Alex Fusté (Andbank) | There is a notable difference between US and European banks: the stock market pays 35% less for European banks. This claim is confirmed by the price/book value ratio, whose average for the 10 largest banks in the US sector is 1.24, while in Europe it falls to 0.8%. In the case of the two largest Spanish banks, Banco Santander and BBVA, the market price is even lower than the average, given that they show ratios of 0.8 and o.7 respectively.
On Tuesday Banco Santander announced that it will not exercise the repurchase of its contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) – the AT1 – of 1.5 billion euros and coupon of 6.25%. The bank, which referred to financial reasons, had already warned in its presentation of results that it would only make the call if conditions were adequate.
Red Eléctrica, the company which manages Spain’s high tension electricity cables, has agreed to buy 89.68% of Hispasat, the largest operator of satellite infrastructure by volume in Spain and Portugal, for 949 M€ from Abertis Infraestructuras. REE had already tried to buy Hispasat at the beginning of last year, even reaching a pre-agreement with Abertis. But the deal was frustrated by the corporate operations in Abertis and the disagreement of the previous government.