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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.
Telefónica to reduce its reliance on Huawei

Ibex, Markets, Spanish economy 14th October 2020

Telefonica Is Creating A Subsidiary To Invest In Fiber In Germany

Banco Sabadell | Telefónica is in the final stages of negotiating an agreement to set up an independent company, which would be responsible for the deployment of a fiber optic network in Germany. The investment in the project is about 5 billion euros. Telefonica would structure the project through its subsidiary Telefonica Infra, which plans to sign an accord with an infrastructure fund and a group of financing banks around the end of October.

spain teleworking

Spanish economy 13th October 2020

Spain Regulates Remote Working For The First Time

The new regulation for teleworking in Spain, approved on September 22nd and agreed with employers and unions, comes into force on Tuesday. The implementation has been accelerated by the covid-19 pandemic, since up until now there was no specific regulation. Telecommuting will be voluntary and reversible for both the employee and the company. 

European banks1

European economy 13th October 2020

European Banks’s ROE plummets to 0.01% in Q2’20 Vs 6.01% Yr Earlier

Intermoney | The ECB has published devastating data on the Eurozone banks. It revealed a ROE of 0.01% in Q2’20 compared with 6.01% a year earlier; a figure that was negative in the major institutions in 7 of the 19 countries in the euro area. In this context, non-performing loans remained almost stable at €503 Bn, allowing the NPL rate of the large banks in the EMU to fall to 2.94%. This was in a fictious manner, however, as it was thanks to state guarantees and, above all, the moratoriums on loan payments. 

Alberto Toribio, ambassador of Crypto Plaza

Interviews 13th October 2020

“Highly Volatile Assets, Such As Crypto-Currencies, Are Necessary In Many Investment Strategies”

María Fernanda Martínez Sierra | “Investment portfolios usually contain positions of different risks, and today covering that part of high risk assets not correlated with the rest is a problem. That is why many investors access this market… many savers only contract bank deposits, because of their low risk, and then buy lottery. The strategies in investment portfolios are not so far removed from that analogy,” says Alberto Toribio’s, whose company was the first Spanish to be set up with crypto-currencies.

Spain tourism GDP

Spanish economy 12th October 2020

Spain Retains Its Third Place In The Most Attractive Countries For Tourism ranking

Icex (Invest in Spain ) | Spain is once again ranked first in Europe and third in the world in the Country Brand Ranking Tourism 2019-2020, which measures the appeal of the country brand of about 200 countries. The report points to possible threats to this position: Hong Kong has already overtaken Spain, while the “United Kingdom and Italy are approaching at a good clip”. The two latter countries appear to be the “two new international giants”, rising five and three places respectively in the world ranking.

yuan digital

World economy 10th October 2020

Will China’s Digital Currency Revolutionize Global Payments?

Daniel Wagner | More than 600 M Chinese already use Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay to pay for much of what they purchase. Both companies control approximately 90% of China’s mobile payments market, which totaled some $17 trillion in 2019. The Chinese government understands that, via Blockchain, the issuance of its own cryptocurrency is an excellent way to track and record the movement of payments, goods and people: the unsexily named Digital Currency/Electronic Payments (DCEP).

EU agriculture

In the World, World economy 9th October 2020

Agriculture Had Another Good Month

Agricultural and livestock commodities generally had another good month, but some stood out more so than others. Lean hogs made strong gains of 32.1% last month leading the group by a wide margin and entering positive territory year-to-date. In 2019, African Swine Fever in China had cut the country’s pork production by 21.3%, and a further 19% loss in production happened in the first 6 months of 2020 (on a year-on-year basis). As a result, there has been a rapid rise in pork imports notably from the US and Spain.

gas infrastructure

Spanish economy 9th October 2020

The Integrated Management Of Gas And Electricity Infrastructures In Spain Would Allow Savings Of More Than €2 Bn A Year By 2050

A report by Frontier Economics and the German University of Aachen concludes that integrated infrastructure management (sector coupling) will be essential in achieving decarbonisation, because it minimises costs, makes it possible to decarbonise sectors that are difficult to electrify, increases supply safety, and makes it possible to promote an industry with export potential and job creation.

repsolatardecer

Ibex, Markets, Spanish economy 9th October 2020

Repsol’s Production In The 3Q20 Reached 615,000 b/d, Down 13.5% Compared To The Same Period Of 2019

Repsol reached a production of 615,000 bpd, which represents a decrease of 13.5% compared to the same period last year and 3.8% compared to the previous quarter, mainly due to the US (Marcellus and Eagle Ford). The refining margin, an important indicator for the downstream business, averaged a negative $0.1 per barrel in 3Q20. This level reflects the impact of the worldwide uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis. This indicator in the previous quarter was $ 3 per barrel, while in 3Q19 it was $ 5.5.