ATHENS | By Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis| It is beyond any doubt that what Greece has achieved fiscally over the last few years is phenomenal. A primary deficit that at the end of 2009 stood at 24.2 billion euros has been wiped out within just four years and has been turned into a small primary surplus, irrespective of any objections one might have about its size and how it was achieved.
MADRID | The Corner Team | Three Spanish financial institutions set the example of the country’s incipient recovery just after the banking bailout program came to a clean end: Santander gained 90% more than last year; Caixabank, 118% and BBVA, 30%.
Iris Mir |Chinese brand Haier went from a disastrous inefficient brand to the world’s biggest household appliances manufacturer thanks to its CEO, Zhang Ruimin, innovative entrepreneurial thinking. The ideal scenario for China would be that many local brands could achieve Haier’s reputation and capacity for innovation. And thus they’d become Ambassadors of a new made in China, most sophisticated and exclusive. A substantial consolidation of domestic demand and the development of a new industrial structure may be paving the way for this dramatic transition to happen.
MADRID | By The Corner Team | Spain’s GDP expanded 0.3 percent in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from the previous three months. For the first time since 2011, the euro region’s fourth largest economy’s growth increased for a second straight quarter, according to official estimates. Market makers are underlying their faith on this new-found economic momentum, and their trust comes as fresh air for the government, who predicted a faster rate recoverty than initially expected. Still, job creation needs to pick up from a depressing 26%.
By LATAM CORRESPONDENT David Brunat | Santiago de Chile is taking off as a regional business pole, and the district of Sanhattan -a word game mixing Santiago and Manhattan- is its Mecca. More than a hundred multinational and Latin American companies are housed in this district, including HSBC, KPMG, Shell and Mexico’s Claro, making Santiago one of the best cities in the region to do business, along with Sao Paulo, which has four times its population.
WASHINGTON | By Alan Smith via The Next New Deal | Anchor institutions like universities and hospitals have the power to establish a living wage and a stronger economy. President Obama plans to sign an executive order requiring workers under federal contractors to be paid at least $10.10 per hour. This move was be a key point in Tuesday’s State of the Union, and folks across the United States will benefit in very real ways. [NOTE: Temporal references have been edited since the piece was written on Monday.]
MADRID | By Francisco López | Argentina’s devaluation contagion pulled downwards such different assets as Brazil Stock Exchange, Argentinian or South African currency , or even Indonesia’s bonds. In Spain, the Ibex fell again by 1.1% losing 6.7% points in just six days, which means its hardest time in past twelve months. When panic spreads, investors do not consider each countries’ economic circumstaces individually.
BEIJING | By Andy Xie via Caixin | If the government bails everyone out this time around, it will be hit with an even bigger tab when the music’s over in the property market.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | Five years ago, the former Treasury official who created the “Taylor Rule,” a formula for rate- setting based on the outlook for inflation and growth said that “the Federal Reserve may soon need to raise interest rates”. Five years later, economist Scott Sumner affirmed that “promising year after year of near zero rates is like promising year after year of sub-par nominal growth”. Five years on the “winning prediction” is obvious.