As a result of the global financial crisis, funding conditions for SMEs in the peripheral European countries tightened considerably. But following the implementation of expansionary monetary policies, including TLTROs and negative interest rates, has loan activity improved for small businesses in countries like Spain, where they are key drivers for economic growth and job creation.
Spain’s caretaker Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will this afternoon make his investiture speech to parliament, ahead of a key vote on Wednesday to secure support for his conservative Popular Party to form a new government. The PP have already brokered an agreement for breaking the current political deadlock with centre-right party Ciudadanos, led by Catalonian lawyer Alber Rivera. As a result, Rajoy can probably rely on the support of 170 MPs. But he needs 176 votes (out of a total of 350) if the PP is to win an absolute majority.
Recent surveys in both Germany and France indicate the perception on the part of companies that there will not be the necessary stimuli for economic activity to fuel an acceleration in the economic momentum.
The reality being faced in the US and abroad is that the current world order has failed to deliver its promises.
Oil demand in both Emerging Markets (EMs) and Developed Markets (DMs) has risen strongly since 2014, but now the oil market will have to rely on EM consumption, according to a BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research report.
BBVA Research | For 2017, the economic cycle is expected to continue correcting the deterioration in Spain’s public accounts, but in a scenario without changes in fiscal policy, the shortfall would decline only to 3.6% of GDP, and would exceed the budgetary target set at 3.1%. Further adjustments will be required to ensure a durable correction.
Fan Ruohong and Chen Na via Caixin | Renewable energy accounted for nearly a quarter of China’s power generation last year, even as wind and solar farms with 39 billion kilowatt-hours of capacity sat idle due to poor planning in the rush to meet Beijing’s ambitious green energy targets, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said.
While acknowledging that Spanish renewable energy and engineering firm Abengoa’s restructuring plan would ease its debt burden, Moody’s has cast doubts over whether it will be successful. Earlier this month, Abengoa reached a debt restructuring deal with its main creditors in an attempt to avoid Spain’s biggest ever bankruptcy. It had been in talks with lenders since November 2015 to reduce its over 9 billion euros debt pile.
Shi Rui, Wang Luyi, Li Rongde via Caixin | The number of provinces with pension spending deficits doubled over the last year, according to a new report, underscoring the urgency for creating a national system that would let wealthier coastal regions subsidize poorer interior ones. Pension funds in six provinces paid out more money than they collected in 2015, up from three regions a year earlier, according to the 2015 China Social Security Development Report compiled by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
John Bruton | The best way to avoid stagnation induced by uncertainty would be for governments in developed countries to produce comprehensive, demographically-based scenarios for the economy over the next 30 years.