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.
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China growing hungry

Iris Mir | During the last decade China’s food  imports grew by 21% a year.  The country is running out of arable land where to farm basic food like grains and cereals or where to grow its cattle. So it’s going abroad to acquire millions of hectares of land from other countries.


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IMF on Spain: Reforms On Track, But Banks Shouldn’t Cut Lending

NEW YORK | By The Corner Team | Spain is leaving the worst of the crisis behind, as economic output and unemployment are stabilising, the IMF said on Monday. However, the adjustment from a profound recession still poses risks for banks. The Washington based institution, which is monitoring Spain’s financial assistance programme, welcomed the implemented measures but urged banks to boost capital without cutting lending.


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Berlusconi ‘propels us towards chaos’

ITALY | Via Presseurop | Italy is in the midst of a political upheaval after the September 28 resignations of five ministers from the coalition government led by the Democratic Party’s Enrico Letta. Silvio Berlusconi’s decision to ask his ministers to resign is criticised by nearly all the country’s press.



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The Recovery Charts That Made Our Day

THE CORNER TEAM | Because an image is worth more than 1,000 words, we are reposting here a fantastic idea by Quartz: they’ve put together 19 graphs of the global economic recovery, from the adjustments that the most crippled euro zone countries are making to Japan leaving deflation behind. Chill out, things are getting better… and it’s Friday.


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Chemical Weapons in Syria: Not the Heart of the Matter

Chemical weapons or not, the forecast remains: Partition in Syria; Syria, in the main, as Sunni; Hezbollah diminished; Lebanon disturbed further by Christian and Shi’a refugees; Saudi and Turkish influence enhanced; the substitution of America’s hard power with soft power as a changing paradigm for its foreign relations unless, of course, Israel and the Strait of Hormuz are threatened and then its terrible swift sword gets unsheathed.


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Italy: Confidence improves, but challenges remain

LONDON | Barclays Reasearch | The market’s confidence has increased, but we still see important challenges that weigh on Italy’s outlook. Political instability is the main risk that could hamper Italy’s ability to tackle these issues.



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To Really Root Out Corruption, Chinese SOEs Need Reform

BEIJING | Via Caixin Magazine | Chinese SOEs, the state behemoths, use systems that make dictators of top managers, a situation that must be addressed for corruption to be rooted out. Appointed outside directors, and learning from advanced economies such as Britain, can be a solution, he magazine believes.


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Spain: Govt revises up 2014 growth forecasts

BARCLAYS ANALYSTS | PM Rajoy announced that the government will raise its 2014 GDP growth forecast to 0.7% from 0.5% previously. The full set of revised 2014 macroeconomic projections is expected to be announced this Friday. The government’s forecast is somewhat below our 2014 growth projection of 0.9%. We expect the economy to emerge from the recession in Q3 13 (+0.1 q/q).