Articles by The Corner

About the Author

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.
Lladro

Porcelanas Lladró Is The First SME To Be Rescued In Spain

Compañía Española de Financiación del Desarollo (Cofides) has made public the names of the first two companies to benefit from the resources of the Fund for the Recapitalisation of Companies Affected by COVID-19 (Fonrec), endowed with 1 billion euros. These are Lladró and Martínez Otero. In the case of Lladró, it will be granted a participative loan of 8 million euros, following the analysis carried out by Kroll, as financial…


pensioners

Inflation At 5.6% Forces Pensions Up By 2.5%

Inflation rose by 5.6% in November compared to last year, two tenths of a percentage point higher than in October, and its highest level since September 1992. The preliminary data, published on Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), mark new annual highs for inflation in Spain, which has risen without interruption since March. The agency blames the rise on increases in food prices and, to a lesser extent, in…


housing overvalued

Spain | Economic, Social And Demographic Determinants Of Housing Demand

BBVA Research | Since 1996, the number of homes in Spain has increased, as well as their size. This Observatory studies the contribution of different socio-demographic factors such as average household size, population growth and the number of dwellings per household to the demand and size per dwelling. Key points Before 2008, the decrease in the size of the households and the increase in the population explained most of the…



Scholz

New German Government To Put 400,000 Homes On The Market Each Year

Two months after the elections, the “traffic light” coalition – formed by social democrats, ecologists and liberals – has reached an agreement to govern the country, with Olaf Scholz, Merkel’s former finance minister, as chancellor. The agreement leaves seven ministries to the SPD, including defence and housing, as well as the power to appoint the next president of the Bundesbank. This post could go to Isabel Schnabel, currently on the…


nadia calvino bruselas

The Government Extends The Bankruptcy Moratorium And ICO Guarantee Lines Until 30 June 2022

The bankruptcy moratorium is extended until 30 June 2022. The Government extends the hibernation of the duty to apply for insolvency proceedings in insolvency situations from the end of 2021 until June 2022. It also extends the ICO guarantee lines, the company recapitalisation funds managed by SEPI and COFIDES until 30 June 2022 and extends the prior authorisation regime for certain foreign investments until 31 December 2022. Yesterday’s Council of…


Telefonica nubecillas

The Government Extends Its Veto On Takeover Bids And Cools The Prospects Of A Possible Corporate Operation By Telefónica.

Bankinter | The Spanish government extends its veto power against possible takeover bids by one year, until December 2022. So in Telefónica (TEF), as a company considered strategic, the government will have to authorise purchases by EU investors of more than 10% of the capital. The ability to veto investments from outside the EU also remains in force indefinitely. These restrictions were imposed in April 2020 to prevent Spanish companies…


bank generico

“Without Numbers You Will Perish”

Aristóbulo de Juan | Visiting the basilica of San Isidoro in León some time ago, I came across a series of tombstones with their inscriptions. One of them carried this statement: “Without numbers you will perish”. It stuck with me. Now, amid the pandemic and its impact on the economy, on banks and on the tolerance of all regulators, we live in a time of great confusion. Banks in good…


Savings

To Borrow Or Not To Borrow: A Dilemma That Depends On What Was Saved During The Pandemic

CaixaBank Research | Unlike in past crises such as the Great Recession, this time the rebound in consumption will be higher: we expect nominal consumption growth in 2021 and 2022 to be higher than the gradual recovery seen in the previous crisis. This higher recovery rate is explained by the fact that much of the savings generated in 2020 were forced and are expected to be undone relatively quickly, and also because the economic support measures have mitigated the impact of the crisis on households. This more rapid recovery in consumption will also drive greater growth in consumer lending, although the extent of the rebound will depend on how the excess savings have been distributed.


strike.es

A ‘Hot’ End To The Year In Spain: The Countryside, The Car Industry And Transport On The ‘Warpath’

The Government is facing a ‘hot’ end of the year in the face of demands being made by economic sectors as important to the Spanish economy as the countryside, the automotive industry and transport. They have already announced demonstrations in response to the problems their respective activities are going through. The Spanish economy is recovering the momentum it lost with the arrival of the pandemic. However, the global supply crisis…