MADRID | By Jaime Santisteban | Relax: Ukraine’s crisis will not spark gas shortages; Abengoa’s yieldco IPO could amount $1bn at Nasdaq.; renewable energies achieve new historic maximum of 59% of overall production and much more…
MADRID | The Corner Team | Bankia’ listing in Madrid Stock Exchange was cancelled up to 10 A.M on Friday. One hour later it was known that Spain sold 7.5% of the entity’s capital announced on Thursday at a value of 1.51 euros per share, which amounts a total of €1.3bn and also a discount of 4.4% against yesterday’s closing prices. Furthermore, the sale allows Spain to earn €136 million. With figures aligning with analysts’ estimations, the start of Bankia’s privatisation proves external confidence in Spanish financial sector recovery.
ATHENS | Op-ed by MacroPolis | [NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: This article was published ahead of Troika officials’ meeting with Bank of Greece (BoG) governor Giorgos Provopoulos on Wednesday]. As local lenders’ capital needs have shot to the top of the agenda in the current round of talks between Greece and its lenders and ahead of the troika’s arrival on Monday, it had been widely reported that Greek banks would need no more than 6 billion euros. However, there is now speculation that the troika believes this figure will be much higher. Here is our take on how this disagreement came about and what the outcome might be.
Youth unemployment in the EU has now reached an average rise of 23.5%. More specifically, there has been an increase of the “NEETs,” young people who are not in employment, education or training to 14 million young Europeans. As a new targeted policy, the European Council endorsed the principle of the Youth Guarantee in June 2013, an scheme to offer all young people up to the age of 25 a good quality employment opportunity, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving their formal education or becoming unemployed. The Youth Guarantee is based on the model of earlier national plans that were successfully implemented in Scandinavian countries, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Poland.
NEW YORK | By Robert Johnson via Next New Deal | The pensions crisis has far-reaching implications for the future of the U.S. economy: the state and local government sector is about 14 percent of the American workforce. What broke the system, and how do we fix it? Beyond the economic crisis, which put enormous pressure on state and municipal budgets, poor decision-making and the influence of big money interests has led to the underfunding of some state and city public pensions.
PARIS | By Jean Pisani-Ferry via Caixin | Europe needs migration much more than at any time in recent decades, but has never given a clear answer to how it feels about the issue.
MADRID | By Álex García.
MADRID | By Francisco López | PM Mariano Rajoy’ leading measures to push up Spanish economy in 2014 include a €100 flat rate for social security contributions of new jobs as well as a tax cut that can benefit 12 million of workers. While the first initiative intends to foster permanent contracts more than alleviate companies’ tax charges, the second is not very clear since we don’t really know how many employees will benefit from it. Also, the next fiscal reform could change tax structure completely.
MEXICO CITY | By David Brunat | It’s crystal clear: the automotive industry is going to drive the Mexican economy soon, says the country’s Automotive Industry Association AMIA, who predicts that in 5 years they will be producing 4 million units -and replace Japan as the second-largest exporter of cars to the United States.
MADRID | By Laura Alcaide (Guest post) | Spaniards, and Europeans in general, are reluctant to let lobbies participate in the political arena. Although it is true that these powerful groups can move the threads behind the scenes, as it happens with many industries in Washington, they can also make consumers’ voices heard and help citizens to fight nepotism and corruption.