China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) marked its fifth birthday in September 2018, though there was probably less to celebrate than the Chinese authorities might have wished. Five years after President Xi presented the initiative to the world in a speech in Kazakhstan, the BRI is facing pressures on three fronts.
Now the UK parliament has the last word on Brexit agreement. The calendar is the problem and, obviously the problems associated with the decision taken, but a hard Brexit may be less of a risk. The experts from Alphavalue have taken the share prices of Getlink, the public company that manages and operates the Eurotunnel, and the London Stock Exchange Group, as examples of companies whose performance has discounted a soft Brexit scenario for some time.
The TLTROs, or ECB credit lines to European banks, have for years regulated bank liquidity.We are talking about some 725 billion euros in financing, of which 170 billion corresponds to Spanish banks. They are little by little being reduced. It is still not known if they will be withdrawn completely. According to analysts at Morgan Stanley, replacing this quantity of TLTROs would not be a panacea for the banks.
Tahir Abbas | The underlying structural and cultural problems of the UK are not going to change by leaving the European Union. The austerity program that was initiated in light of the events of the 2008 global financial crisis hit Britain far more severely than other countries within the EU. As has been reported by the UN special rapporteur, this austerity policy was ideological in nature and not based on sound economic thinking.
The ratings agency Standard & Poors predicts more mergers among medium sized Spanish banks. S&P also 2019 toxic assets on the balance sheets will continue to be reduced and that the main challenge will remain improving profit margins which remain at historic lows. In fact it is this low profitability which will drive consolidation this year which will help achieve synergies, economies of scale and cost cutting.
CAF has secured a contract in France for the rehabilitation of regional trains for 121.3 M€. According to the train builder, CAF was awarded the contract to rehabilitate 43 regional trains in France, which form part of those offering services in metropolitan Paris and the rest of the Île-de-France region, for a total of 121.3M€.
Theresa May’s defeat in the British Parliament is historic with a gap of 230 votes (432 votes against 202 against). What can happen? Philippe Waechter from Ostrum AM have in mind a scheme with all the alternatives. Can Theresa May still be credible after her terrible defeat? We can imagine general elections but who will take the 10 Downing Street?
The Spanish economy capacity for financing abroad has contracted in annual terms to 2015 lows, points Bankia Estudios, in the process undermining the process of deleveraging when global indebtedness still remains at excessive levels.In the case of households, even if disposable income has seen a big increase as a result of the recovery in wages, the greater rhythm in consumption has led to a new fall in savings.
The rate of Spanish donors is the highest in the world, and its transplant system the best. In the last five years Spain has registered the greatest increase in donors since 1989, achieving in 2018 a rate of 48 donors for every million inhabitants, 2,243 in total, and for the 27th consecutive being the world leader in donations and transplants, according to the latest balance of activity from the National Transplant Organisation (ONT), presented this week by the Ministry of Health.
The flood of negative news about Italian banks continues. The shares of Banco Dei Paschi di Sienna (BMPS) fell -10.2% to 1.35€/share after receiving a request from the ECB to improve its solvency ratios. The central bank sees risks which affect the bank’s profitability and financing, but the Italian Economics Minister, Giovanni Tria, comments that “Italian banks do not have major problems”.