MADRID | June 3, 2015 | So far, monetary policy stimulus is working as planned, ECB’s president Mario Draghi insisted on Wednesday, and the bond buying program needs to reach full implementation until September 2016. The central lender rules out any earlier taper and will keep rates on hold.
The Corner | June 3, 2015 | Good news for Spain’s economic recovery. The number of unemployed people in Spain saw a sharp drop in May, marking the largest fifth-month decline since records began in 1996.
BNP Paribas | June 4, 2015 | In many respects the Japanese QE experience since 2013 is a pretty good playbook for European equities.
BEIJING | June 2, 2015 | By Xu Gao via Caixin | Unless obstacles blocking the flow of capital to the real economy are cleared, the financial market will continue to be trapped.
UBS | June 2, 2015 | Although hotel companies need to be vigilant to the digital threat, they are coping well if EBIT margins are anything to go by. In our view, Google remains the biggest potential disruptive force in the online space.
The Corner | June 1, 2015 | Spain Manufacturing PMI Index, designed to measure the performance of the manufacturing economy, rose to 55.8 in May from 54.2 in April: the strongest improvement in business conditions in the country in eight years, according to Markit.
The Corner | June 1, 2015 | Italian risk premium (136.5 bp) should probably come down and be lower than the Spanish one (135 bp) this week despite PM Matteo Renzi’s set back in the country’s regional elections on Sunday, experts at Bankinter commented. (Chart above: Italy Generic Govt 10Y Yield by Bloomberg.)
LONDON | May 30, 2015 | Cristina Marzea (CFA) | All the buzz these days is about digital banking: will banks lose business to disruptive entrants, or will they fight back and embark on a massive digital revolution which will see the branch concept become obsolete. Not all EMs are the same – this refers to levels of bancarisation, credit penetration, technology and mobile adoption, as well as the competitive banking landscape that shapes where each banking market is in the technology cycle.
Barclays | The ECB’s April data on monetary aggregates and bank balance sheets show a surge in money growth, but bank lending dynamics is still subdued and the annual growth rate of loans to the private sector (adjusted for sales and securitisations) remained at 0.8%
LONDON | May 29, 2015 | By Fabio Fois (Barclays) | Given the large number of voters involved (slightly less than half those involved in last year’s European elections) and local governments contested, we believe the Italian elections represent an important test for the government and the structural reform agenda implemented so far.