The European Commission has unveiled a document with an anual battery of recommendations to improve the Spain’s economy’s weak points. It has asked, for the sixth consecutive year, that the improves its public system for finding employment.
Barry Eichengreen via Caixin | The trade deal announced recently by U.S. and China is not easy to evaluate, involving as it did everything from beef and poultry to liquefied natural gas. Washington and Beijing hailed it as an important breakthrough, but skeptical commentators dismissed it as little more than a repackaging of existing commitments.
OPEC’s supply deal extension seems to have become a formality only after Saudi Arabia and Russia pledged their support. The persistent supply glut and reviving shale boom question the deal’s effectiveness. Julius Baer’s analysts see oil prices trading sideways.
Benjamin Cole | Japan has put together a string of five straight quarters of real growth, along with declining unemployment and minute amounts of inflation. Some have recently termed Abenomics “a big success.”
The annual growth rate of the outstanding balance of securities representative of the debt issued by Eurozone residents has slowed, rising 1.4% in March compared with a previous 1.3%. As far as the outstanding balance of listed stocks goes, this grew 0.9% in March compared with 0.7% in February.
France has a financial system worth seven billion euros, compared with Germany’s four billion or the Spanish financial system’s three billion (because of Santander and BBVA). But the Bank of France’s balance sheet is supported by the CFA franc.
Brazil has written a new page of corruption. President Michel Temer was allegedly caught on tape authorizing businessmen to bribe former House Speaker Eduardo Cunha. This new political instability could have the potential to derail ensuing recovery.
Gavin E.L. Hall | After the WannaCry cyber-incident of May 12, comments focused on whether the attack was preventable and if it presents increased vulnerability for public sector organizations. Such analysis does, however, gloss over an essential question: What do we want the role of the government to be?
The possibility of a measured change in the ECB’s language, focused on the analysis of risks and the re-affirmation of its confidence in the recovery scenario, make more sense after seeing the minutes of the central bank’s April meeting. But this change is not expected until after the summer, with the September meeting seen as the big date in the diary.
The Energy Ministry this week held its macro-auction to award installation licences for up to 3.000 MW of renewables plants in Spain. The auction represents an investment of over 3 billion euros and Forestalia, Gas Natural and Endesa ended up with the majority of the MW.