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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.
oliu torres

Ibex, Spanish economy 27th November 2020

Talks Between BBVA And Banco Sabadell About A Potential Merger Terminated Without Agreement

Renta 4 | The reasons for the cease of negotiations would be, on the one hand, the lack of agreement on the exchange equation and the price to be paid, and on the other, the distribution of power. The suggested retirement for Sabadell’s chairman Josep Oliú in exchange for the operation being paid for in cash would not be well received by the ECB, given the risk of BBVA’s chairman Carlos Torres being charged in relation with the Villarejo case. This could then leave the merged group without a chairman. So the ECB would have urged a joint presidency between Torres and Oliú.

corona vaccine 1

In the World, World economy 27th November 2020

Pharmaceutical Sector: Covid-19 Vaccine Breakthroughs Promise Politically Sensitive Windfall Profits

The surprising speed with which two small biotech firms have developed vaccines for Covid-19 puts pressure on regulators to make sure they are safe and on large pharmaceutical companies to produce them at scale and “acceptable” profit margins. “Who would want to be in the shoes of the Federal Drug Administration or the European Medicines Authority today given that the health and economic wellbeing of the planet is riding on whether it is safe to approve the BioNTech and Moderna vaccines,” says Olaf Tölke, head of corporates ratings at Scope.

cash or card

Spanish economy 26th November 2020

Spain: Maintaining Cash Flow Is Major Concern For 2021

Crédito y Caución (Atradius) | Most businesses in Spain predict the greatest threats to business profitability in 2021 to include maintaining adequate cash flow, the effective collection of outstanding invoices and the containment of costs (reported by 43%,43% and 40% respectively). Despite the uncertainties of the pandemic more businesses expressed optimism than pessimism about the outlook for their customers’ credit worthiness in 2021.

spain poverty oxfam

Spanish economy 26th November 2020

Wage Inequality And Poverty Effects Of Lockdown And Social Distancing In Europe

Juan C. Palomino, Juan G. Rodríguez, Raquel Sebastian (ICAE) | Lockdown measures are likely to worsen cohesion in Europe both between countries and, especially, within countries. Our decomposition exercise shows that between-countries inequality will increase in Europe between 2.5% and 4.0%, while within-countries inequality will increase between 5.0% and 12.1%. In general, we find a greater increase of both poverty and inequality in Eastern and Southern Europe than in Northern and Central Europe.

Europeok

European economy 25th November 2020

Western Europe: Overdue invoices and write-offs increase dramatically

Crédito y Caución (Atradius) |For many businesses around the world, 2020 has been the most challenging year experienced for some time. Global GDP is forecast to contract by more than 4% this year, world trade by about 15% and insolvencies to increase by 26%. Without exception, every country polled in Europe reported an increase in late payments which corresponds to an average two-thirds increase on pre-pandemic figures for the whole region. This would make a bigger downturn than the 2008/2009 recession.

RCEP summit

In the World, World economy, World politics 25th November 2020

China | What is the implication of RCEP to Chinese and regional economy?

Jinyue Dong, BBVA Research ! On November 15th, Asia Pacific nations including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand plus 10 countries of ASEAN signed the world’s largest regional free-trade agreement which is the so-called Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP, with the member countries encompassing 2.2 billion people that is nearly a third of the world’s population and USD 26.2 trillion GDP as around 1/3 of the world GDP as well as 1/3 of world’s total trade volume. Top officials from 15 nations inked the RCEP nearly a decade in the making on the final day of the 37th ASEAN Summit hosted virtually by Vietnam this year. The completion of negotiations is a strong message affirming China, Eastern Asia and ASEAN’s role in supporting the multilateral trade system. In addition, the agreement will contribute to developing supply chains that have been disrupted due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the China-US decoupling, as well as supporting the regional and world economic recovery. Obviously, the signing of RCEP which has experienced eight years of negotiations among member countries has essential implications on Chinese and regional economy…

Latibexok

I.R. Spain, Spanish economy 25th November 2020

“Placing Innovation At The Heart Of Our Commitment To Latin American Markets”

Berta Ares, General Manager, BME Inntech | BME offers unregulated financial services such as trading, information, regulatory and wealthtech services. Our presence in the region focuses in Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia and Chile. We are present in all these countries, offering solutions and technology in the Wealth Management industry that range from advised and/or discretionary portfolio management to client relationship management solutions. In Colombia, we provide market access and order routing services for the Colombian stock exchange. Both in Colombia and Mexico, our services include information terminals to access real-time economic and financial information of capital markets.

World map

Spanish economy 25th November 2020

How Financial Regulation Can Help Save the Planet

“Let’s say you’re an insurance company and insuring people close to the sea. In Spain, for example, in La Manga del Mar Menor people have vacation homes in an area where sea levels are rising rapidly. If you are an insurance company with properties in areas such as this, this is a disaster. Or if you’re a global company with farmland in Almeria that requires lots of irrigation and Spain’s rainfall decreases dramatically and you can’t cultivate it, you take a massive hit.” The question of climate change and its impact is not a new one – but Antonio Cabrales suggests that there is a new solution, and it lies with the banks.

Hungaryok

European economy 24th November 2020

Hungary-High Debt Levels Remain A Major Weakness In The Mid-Term

Crédito y Caución (Atradius) | Hungary’s current account turned to a deficit in 2019, due to rising disposable income and import-intensive investment. The deficit will increase in 2020 to 1.8% of GDP, mainly due to export deterioration. External debt is very high and increasing to about 100% of GDP in 2021, with the share of inter-company lending amounting to 37%. A large share of external debt is foreign currency-denominated, and a sharp forint depreciation would hurt many Hungarian households and businesses whose loans are denominated in foreign currencies. The forint remains vulnerable to international investors’ sentiment due to the elevated external and public debt levels and a suboptimal institutional and policy environment. However, strong GDP growth in the coming years should continue to support the exchange rate.

bank generico

In the World, World economy 24th November 2020

Putting “Too Big to Fail” to Rest: Evidence from Market Behavior in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Francisco Covas y Gonzalo Fernandez (Instituto Español de Analistas Financieros) | An important objective of the banking regulations introduced after the global financial crisis was to eliminate the perception that some firms were too big to fail (TBTF). The perception of being TBTF compromises public welfare for two main reasons: first, investors that perceive a firm to be TBTF do not charge appropriately for risk, creating an incentive for the firm to become riskier to take advantage of the subsidy. Second, firms not currently perceived as TBTF have an incentive to become larger and more systemic so that they become TBTF and get the funding subsidy. The dynamics fostered by both reasons also increase the likelihood that the government will, in fact, have to bail out a firm, making the perception of TBTF potentially self-fulfilling.