Benjamin Cole | The last time commercial property prices topped out was July of 2007. House prices appear to be rising still, though at a slower rate by various indices. On a per-square-foot basis, house prices in the U.S. have not budged since May of last year. That could be important, suggesting that houses now selling are larger, and the middle-class is dropping out of the market.
J.L.M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) | According to Eurostat, the business investment rate in the last quarter of 2016 grew to 23.5% from 22% in the previous quarter. We are talking about reaching pre-crisis levels.
By Alexander Coward|While it was a tragic day for those whimsical souls who see the lie in the notion of Britain being a modern great power, recognizing its status as a medium-sized country that used to have an empire, when Article 50 was triggered on March 29 it was not a sad day for Europe.
By Zhang Yiqing via Caixin | Against the backdrop of the world’s excess liquidity, the Belt and Road initiative offers infrastructure construction opportunities that provide investment returns while also generating economic value and social benefits.
Housing prices in the Eurozone rose 4.1% in the fourth quarter of 2016 from a year earlier, the highest interannual increase since the third quarter of 2007, according to Eurostat data. In Spain, the average rise in prices remained at 4.4%.
As the Easter week holiday kicks off, the positive outlook for Spain’s tourism and hotel sector augurs yet another record-beating season. During this week, the occupancy rate in some tourism areas in Andalucia will be almost 100%, while on the islands nearly 90% occupancy is predicted.
S&P has cut its outlook for Banco Popular to Negative from Stable (where it placed the bank on February 9), which opens the door to new rating trims. At the same time, Popular will hold its AGM today where the 2016 accounts (losses of €3.485 billion) are due to be approved by shareholders,
Enric Fernández (Caixabank) | The forecasts of the vast majority of analysts and international organisations point to an acceleration of global GDP growth in 2017. At CaixaBank Research we are predicting a growth rate in real terms of 3.4%, three tenths of a percentage point above last year. The improvement will be extensive for all the advanced economies (which we expect to grow 2%) as well as for the emerging markets (+4.5%)
Nikos Skoutaris via Macropolis | Last Wednesday, 9 months after the Brexit referendum took place, Theresa May triggered Article 50 TEU. The following day, the Government announced legislation to end authority of EU law, while on Friday the President of the EU Council, Donald Tusk released the draft guidelines for the Brexit negotiations.
Steve Keller via Atlantic Sentinel | Last week, I wrote about Donald Trump’s soft support among Republicans. Democrats already strongly disapprove of his bigotry, buffoonery and right-wing ideology. In order to dip down to Nixonian or Bush ’43 levels — high 20s, low 30s — he will have to lose support from conservatives and Republican-leaning independents.