Maximising profits is the main objective of any company and the banks are not alien to this situation. The current scenario is particulary challenging for the profitability adjustment of the sector in Europe and the adjustments made by the Spanish banks are proof of this.
The jobless rate in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) remained stable in February compared to January at 6.5% of the active population. By regions, the Eurozone had the highest unemployment rate at 10.3%.
Andrew Sheng via Caixin | Most studies on yuan internationalization focus on how it affects trade and investment flows and GDP growth. They typically neglect the balance sheet aspects, as well as the profits, or return on equity, issue.
AXA IM | Yet when looking at the US economy we see low unemployment, continued strong job gains, increased personal income and rising core inflation. The traditional end-of-cycle dynamics (rapid increase in wage costs, monetary tightening, reduced profitability) are not screaming “recession” at us.
UBS | Il Messaggero published yesterday a draft memo with some details of Atlante, the system -wide fund that has been created to secure banks’ recapitalisations and purchase NPLs.
Deutsche AM | Volatile stock markets trending sideways. Ultra-low interest. This is hardly the stuff investor dreams are made of. Under company’s value and what is already priced in.
Public investment grew 21% to 26.545 billion euros last year, according to data corresponding to end-2015. This was the first increase since 2009. It accounted for 2.5% of GDP in 2015. The autonomous regional governments were the ones which saw the most investment and the biggest year-on-year rise.
BARCLAYS | Copper and oil price moves have tracked each other fairly closely for most of the year so far but have diverged recently as the supply-side support that has emerged for oil has not been replicated in the metals market.
BoAML | According to Summers, the main source of weak US and global growth is insufficient aggregate demand. The equilibrium funds rate has dropped sharply so super aggressive monetary policy and asset bubbles are needed to create full employment and normal inflation. By contrast, we have argued that most of the stagnation is coming from the supply side of the economy.
Ofelia Marín-Lozano | Spain’s public deficit stood at 5.18% of GDP, missing the target set by Brussels (4.2%) by one percentage point. So the deficit should not be higher than nominal GDP growth, which can be estimated at around 3% in the long term.