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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.
debt

Markets 29th May 2014

ECB joins the warning: beware of cheap debt

MADRID | By The Corner | As the Spanish sovereign bond is at minimums (2.8%) and the volume of debt has attained maximums (98%), Bankinter analysts point that low rates along with the large volume of issuances make European fixed income highly sensitivity to the risk premium ups and downs. High yield European firms are placing their bonds at historical minimum of 3.73%, when the average of the last 15 years is 10.19%. One of the risks the ECB is highlighting is the return of financial instruments that boosted banks’ leverage and resulted in the 2007 economic downturn. 

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In Europe 29th May 2014

Draghi highlights credit constraints and risk of disinflationary expectations taking hold

LONDON | By Barclays analysts | ECB is going to cut its policy interest rate and/or announce targeted liquidity measures, with a view to support bank lending at the 5 June Governing Council meeting. In his remarks at the ECB Forum on Central Banking being held in Portugal, ECB President Draghi highlighted the risk of a negative spiral between low inflation, falling inflation expectations and credit for the euro area.

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World economy 28th May 2014

Power and energy: the Egyptian presidential election

If Sisi does not stabilize the energy and power sector, the Egyptian street’s patience will not last forever. The Egyptian presidential election takes place between May 26-28, having been extended by one day due to low voter turnout. Former Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is poised to win by a landslide against left-wing candidate Hamdeen Sabahi. Langendorf and Dargin talk about the Egyptian presidential election, the country’s energy crisis and its potential consequences.

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Spanish economy 27th May 2014

Spanish socialist leader to resign after worst-ever results

MADRID | The Corner | After their sweeping defeat at the European polls, both Spanish ruling conservative Popular Party and the Socialists have switched to a crisis management mood. The first prominent victim was Socialists’ leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, who announced his resignation on Monday. The party will choose new leaders at an extraordinary meeting on July 19 and 20.

 

 

ecb

Markets 27th May 2014

EU’s problem is not in Germany but in France

MADRID | The Corner | The rise of the far-right Front National will harm more the European project than any economic recipe imposed from Berlin. In the end, Germany is indeed setting hard conditions for the EU integration, but at least is favoring it, whereas France’s Marine Le Pen has a clearly anti European speech and intends to bring power back to the countries.

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In Europe 27th May 2014

Elections results present fresh challenges for SYRIZA and New Democracy

ATHENS | By Macropolis | The final results from Sunday’s European Parliament elections confirmed that SYRIZA gained a victory of 3.9 percentage points over New Democracy but the outcome of the ballot left both parties with much to think about in the weeks ahead. SYRIZA attracted 26.6 percent of the vote, which is slightly down on its share of the vote in the June 2012 elections. New Democracy received 22.7 percent but pointed to the 8 percent that PASOK’s Elia alliance gained as evidence that the coalition retains a clear mandate to continue governing.

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World economy 26th May 2014

China: The birth pains of a new economy

BEIJING | By Andy Xie via Caixin | The quality of China’s GDP growth is rising with falling property prices. The economy is diverting resources away from wasteful bubble activities to productive ones. While growth is slowing, it reflects shrinking of the bad GDP. Two-thirds of the economy is still expanding steadily. More importantly, China is experiencing a labor shortage due to a shrinking of working-age population and steady economic expansion. The economy is in a strong position to absorb the fallout of a deflating property bubble.

Solana

Interviews 23rd May 2014

Luis Solana: “European telecoms mostly need to promote technological solutions” (II)

MADRID | By Fernando Barciela| In the EU of 28 each telecom market is different.
 That is one of the reasons explaining why it is very difficult for Europe to reach a reduced market of just three operators like the US, as Luis Solana said. Another challenge for the sector in the region is to push technologies up to avoid it becomes a simple ‘utility’. At the moment, Telefonica tries to help the industry gathering new ideas for startups in all the company’s territory- Spain, UK, Germany, LatAm and so on- via its entrepreunership device Wayra.

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Markets 23rd May 2014

Market chatter: S&P, you’re late (Spain already gets AA+ treatment)

MADRID | By Jaime Santisteban | S&P has upgraded Spain’s credit rating for the first time since stripping the country of its AAA grade in 2009, increasing its assessment to BBB from BBB- and saying the outlook is stable. But ten-year Spanish bond yields stay at 3.004% following last week’s auction, while the U.S. benchmark 10-year note yield, was up 1.5 basis points at 2.550%, according to Tradeweb. A BBB player is getting more or less the same treatment in the market as a AA+.