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Articles by The Corner

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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.
nuria aliño

Interviews 10th June 2021

“I am Surprised That There Are So Few Open Banking Fintechs In Spain”

“Traditionally, financial services were provided by banks – in many countries three or four institutions have 80 or 85% of the market, and they do not always have a focus on financial inclusion – but that is no longer the case and there are new providers, such as ‘ANT FInancial’ in China or ‘Mercado Libre’ in Latin America, which started with payments and now offer a wide range of services. That is why open banking is important for the World Bank, because it favours competition and financial inclusion”, says Nuria Aliño, advisor to the World Bank.

Acciona

Spanish economy 9th June 2021

Acciona Energia Starts Marketing Its IPO

The CNMV has approved the prospectus for the partial placement of Acciona Energia. The placement syndicate starts marketing the IPO this week. The transaction is aimed at institutional investors. The Spanish multinational expects to place around 25% of capital (30% if the green shoe is added). Acciona will significantly reduce corporate debt after the capitalisation of intra-group loans. Acciona Energía is born with an installed capacity of 11,000 MW and…

Bukele Bitcoin

World economy 9th June 2021

El Salvador To Be The First Country In The World To Adopt Bitcoin As Legal Tender

Fernando Alberca | For the Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele, the impact of this measure will be very positive: “In the short term, this will generate jobs and help bring financial inclusion to thousands of people outside the formal economy. And in the medium and long term, we hope this small decision can help us push humanity, at least a little bit, in the right direction.”Although the US dollar is the official currency in El Salvador, remittances of dollars from Salvadorian emigrants have to pay high commissions to banks and intermediary exchange houses to transfer them to their home country.

Tourism

Spanish economy 8th June 2021

Summer Of The New Normal Will Create More Than 438,500 Jobs, At 2015 Levels

Randstad Research forecasts that the summer campaign will generate 438,550 contracts in Spain, 20.7% more than last year, although still 29.5% below the amount clocked up in 2019. The figure predicted for this year’s summer campaign is on a par with that of 2015, when 437,873 contracts were signed. When the historical series is analysed, it can be seen that, since 2012, the volume of summer contracts has not stopped growing.

G7 cornwell

Relevant News Item 8th June 2021

G7 Tax Deal: If You Think Multinationals Will Be Forced To Pay More, You Don’t Understand Tax Avoidance

Ronen Palan via The Conversation | Finance ministers in London from the G7 group of wealthy nations have agreed a deal that has been described invariably as a landmark that will transform the landscape of global corporate tax. The supposed deal is certainly transformational. Transformation from what to what? Is it going to transform a system of taxation that simply does not fit for purpose in the 21st? Or is it going to transform the techniques of tax avoidance?

germany inflation1TC

World economy 7th June 2021

Have We Entered ‘The Great Inflation 2.0’?

Consumer spending in the United States increased to pre-pandemic levels of around $13.4 trillion in the first quarter of 2021 from $13.0 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2020. If the pandemic can be characterised as the economic engine being parked rather than broken, pent up demand could quickly cause consumer spending to overshoot the trend from recent years.

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Spanish economy 7th June 2021

The Government, Good Governance And The Indra Case

Fernando González Urbaneja | The government’s contempt for the forms and procedures it imposes on other market players is insulting. And what is the CNMV doing?
The government, the Moncloa, has imposed a change in the chairmanship of INDRA, a listed company in which the state controls 19%, without explanation or justification…

Jerome Powell

Relevant News Item 7th June 2021

Tapering? The Fed Starts Selling Its Positions In 16 Corporate Debt ETFs ($8.6 billion) Today.

Today, Monday 7 June, the Fed will start selling its positions in 16 corporate debt ETFs ($8.6 billion) as part of its decision to unwind $13.8 billion in ETFs and bonds under the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility before the end of the year. The turn for corporate bond sales will come after the summer, in both cases proceeding in a “gradual and orderly” manner.

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Spanish economy 7th June 2021

Public Works Tenders In Spain Could Rebound 41% This Year To 2010 Levels

Seopan, the employers’ association of large construction companies and infrastructure concessionaires, estimates that public construction tenders in Spain will grow by 41.5% in 2021 to 20.17 billion euros, which would mean almost 6 billion euros more than a year earlier and recover the levels of 2010.Moreover, taking into account the current pace, it calculates that awarding could close the year with an increase of 12.4% to 7.9 billion euros, which would mean 877 million euros more than in 2020 and return to 2011 values.

gender equality

European economy 6th June 2021

Gender Mainstreaming In The EU Budget: Time To Turn Words Into Action

The European Court of Auditors assessed whether gender mainstreaming had been applied in the EU budget from 2014 onwards. Their conclusion is that there is not yet any effective framework to support gender mainstreaming, and that the EU’s budget cycle has not adequately taken gender equality into account.They found that only 4 out of the 58 2014-2020 spending programmes had explicit gender-related objectives.