According to Eurostat data, Spain’s tax burden in 2014 was lower than in other big European economies like Germany, Italy, France or the United Kingdom, and 6 percentage points below the European average.
The Bank of Spain plans to change the method for calculating provisions in H1 2016, in advance of the European Commission’s new accounting regulations due to be implemented in 2018. Under the new rules elaborated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), provisions will be calculated based on the expected loss in credit operations and not on the loss already incurred, as has been the case up to now.
Maxime Larivé | With the rise of the far-right, national politics will certainly have their say on international relations in Europe. It has become routine for analysts to identify issues and threats that may occur throughout the next 12 months. And every time, experts underline how futile such an exercise can be.
UBS | What are the facts related to the investigation? The French state is undertaking an investigation on 100 models sold in France to make sure there is no installed defeat device. Renault has 25 models under review, which is equivalent to its market share in France. Four models have been checked so far and no defeat device was found.
BBVA Research | Transforming shadow banking into resilient and market – based financing is one of the four core elements of the global financial regulatory reform undertaken by the G20 in 2008 at its first meeting in Washington . But prog ress towards achieving this goal is uneven and there is still work to be done. The implementation of the agreed measures is in an incipient phase. The most significant advances have been in improving transparency and aligning incentives in securitisation.
James Alexander via Historinhas | We often hear from both the right and the left that the relative lack of growth in the US is mostly due to supply issues, in particular changing demographics. Those baby-boomers retiring have created a new stagnation. The US Bureau for Labor Statistics (BLS) has consistently encouraged this view. There’s really nothing that can be done about it.
Investment in Spain’s property sector rose 67% to a record 11.7 billion euros in 2015, according to a study by consultancy firm BNP Paribas Real Estate. This figure is 25% higher than the total investment recorded in the pre-crisis years. But the consultancy predicts that the scarcity of adequate investment opportunities will see investment stabilising at around 8.5 billion euros.
Spain’s renewable energy market is expected to see further consolidation activity in 2016, with transactions estimated at around €4 billion euros, in line with a year earlier. The fragmented nature of the industry and asset disposals by European firms will fuel M&A.
BARCLAYS | When President Maduro announced the members of his new cabinet on January 6, he seemed to signal his intention to maintain a hard-line stance; there was no suggestion of any willingness to make the adjustments to correct the large distortions and imbalances hampering Venezuela’s economy.
BARCLAYS | Heading into 2016, aside from the current market weakness, UK equity investors face at least five important questions. One of them is if the UK consumer is retrenching. The answer points that discretionary stocks have de-rated, while the Staples have not.