US biotech company Novavax has signed an agreement to carry out the industrial production of its vaccine for Europe in Spain, once it becomes available, with Spanish pharmaceutical Zendal (through its subsidiary Biofabri). The Spanish Agency of Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), dependent on the Ministry of Health, has affirmed that this fact is an “important” boost for Spain’s pharmaceutical industry.
Rating agency S&P has changed Spain’s rating outlook to “negative” due to the pandemic. While maintaining the country rating at “A,” the agency warns of the coronavirus’ strong impact on Spain’s economy. For this reason it has worsened its perspectives from “stable” to “negative.” S&P also justifies its decision on the possibility that an agreement will not be reached over next year’s budget.
The economy grew 7% in 2019, as a surge in exports to the US offset weaker demand from China. Private consumption and fixed investment also performed well, helped by rapid wage growth, rising tourism and export manufacturing. However, in 2020 the economic performance is severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, with GDP growth expected to slow down to 2.3%. Both domestic demand and exports are impacted, with tourism, transport (aviation), electronics, textiles, and agriculture being the most affected industries.
The European Central Bank has decided to allow the lenders it directly supervises in the region, on a temporary basis until June 27, 2021, to exclude certain exposures to the central bank from their leverage ratio. In this way, the institutions will have more room to incur debt since the ECB will not require more capital for it. In fact the ECB will not take into account the liquidity (cash and deposits) banks hold at the central bank when calculating the leverage ratio (Capital/Assets).
Santander Corporate & Investment | New car registrations in Europe (EU+UK+ European Free Trade Association) plummeted 17.6% annually in August to 884,394 vehicles. Thus it broke the three-month period of smooth declines, including a 3.7% drop in July. In total, 7.267,621 new cars were registered in the European Union between January and August, almost 3.6 million less than in the same period last year. The outlook for the sector for the rest of the year is not encouraging.
European national governments have responded to this crisis with battery of fiscal measures of various different types and sizes. According to the latest forecasts from the consensus of analysts (July 2020), the deterioration in the fiscal balance in 2020 will amount to 8.6% of GDP in Germany, 8.1% in Spain, 7.6% in France and 9.4% in Italy. For CaixaBank Research, this suggests that the fiscal stimulus of the major economies in 2020 will, in fact, be more similar than one might believe.
The Libra Association has hired former HSBC European head James Emmett as the managing director of Libra Networks — the operating company subsidiary of the association. Libra said on Thursday that Emmett, who spent more than 25 years at HSBC and recently stepped down as the CEO of HSBC Bank plc and Europe, is joining in October. Stuart Levey, CEO of the Libra Association, who also joined from HSBC recently, reportedly, said Emmett’s leadership “will help make Libra’s vision a reality.”
European Views | Across Europe, real estate markets which were already daunting for lower-income buyers – like Germany or Portugal – are set to become even more gruelling because of new economic stresses caused by the pandemic. 40% of young people in Europe who are at risk of poverty consider prohibitive housing costs, one of the chief contributors to their plight, while a similar percentage of low-income earners already struggle with overcrowded living situations.
Peter Isackson | The Guardian offered its readers what is certainly the most comic and hyperreal sentence of the week when it reported that “Boris Johnson accused the EU of preparing to go to ‘extreme and unreasonable lengths’ in Brexit talks as he defended breaching international law amid a mounting rebellion from Tory backbenchers.”
Last night the boards of Bankia and Caixabank approved its merger. The operation, which will retain the CaixaBank brand, is structured as a merger of Bankia into CaixaBank. The combined entity’s total assets will exceed €664 Bn, a volume that will make it the largest bank in the domestic market, with an important position at a European level and a market capitalisation of over €16 billion. The management aims at a target of 770M euros of cost savings and revenue synergies of €290M.