The total debt of the public administrations rose by 8.2% in July in comparison with the same month of the previous year, as a consequence of the greater expenditure derived from the coronavirus crisis. This increase adds up to almost €100 billion more in the last year, according to the data published on Thursday by the Bank of Spain.
In 1993, both India and China were equally poor with GDP at USD377 per capita. Fast forward to 2019, India GDP per capita rose to USD2,104 while China fast-tracked to USD10,261… The only country that is comparable in size to China is India, as one has 1.40bn people and the other 1.33bn people, respectively. Combined, they are home to 36 percent of the world’s population. From May until the recent truce engineered in Moscow, the China-India border dispute has threatened to fracture efforts to foster bilateral ties between the two economies, such as the India banning of Chinese apps in response to the conflict.
The Bank of England (BoE) left policy on hold at its latest meeting. Bank Rate remained at 0.1% and the Asset Purchase Facility (APF) was left at £745bn. Both decisions were made unanimously. The BoE explained that the APF had risen to £684bn to date, buoyed by £230bn in gilt purchases and £9.3bn (of £10bn) corporate debt purchases. The current QE programme is expected to expire around the turn of the year and purchases have been lower than in Q2 given the improvement in liquidity conditions.
The Bank of Spain presented the update on its growth forecasts for the period 2020-2022, formulating two alternative scenarios. They provide a range of negative growth for GDP in Q3 of 9.5%-12.3% year-on-year (equivalent to quarterly advances of 16.6% and 13% respectively). On the other hand, it flags the upward risk of the various initiatives implemented at a European level, mainly the European Recovery Fund.
Link Securities | After the publication of the Fed’s meeting’s statement and the intervention of Jerome Powell, the central bank’s “performance” did not end up pleasing everyone. It adhered to the script. The Fed confirmed that the majority of its members do not expect increases in official interest rates until the end of 2023. They also reiterated that they will allow inflation to stay above 2% for a while, until the objective of reducing the jobless rate to pre-pandemic levels is achieved.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga won the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election, meaning he was poised to replace Shinzo Abe as prime minister of Japan. Suga has been confirmed by a vote in the Diet on Wednesday 16 September. This comes after Abe announced in late August that he planned to step down due to ill health. Suga could reignite structural reforms although his top priority is containing the virus, says Schroders.
Jinyue Dong / Betty Huang (BBVA Research) | A batch of economic activity indicators announced yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics pointed to a continuing growth momentum in August. Industrial production, fixed-asset investment and retail sales all showed remarkable improvement from their previous month’s readings and beat the market consensus.
This morning (Wednesday 16 September), the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, delivered her ‘State of the Union’ address before the European Parliament in Brussels.
Bankia has been authorized by the ECB to change the parameters used for its calculation of credit risk linked to its retail mortgage business, according to a statement it published on market regulator CNMV’s website on Tuesday. This will allow Bankia to lift its CET1 capital ratio to 160 bp from 13.27% to 14.87%, the highest among Spanish banks as well as could favor the bank in the merger process with CaixaBank.
Inditex has seen a “rapid recovery” in the second half of its fiscal year 2020-2021, after returning to profits of 214 million euros in this period (between 1 May and 31 July), and leaving behind the loss of 409 million euros in the first three months. Sales recovered from -44% in the first quarter to -31% in the second quarter, despite as many as 87% of the Group’s stores still being closed in May. Today, 98% of Inditex’s stores are open, with restrictions still in place in some specific markets.