MADRID | The Corner Team | A typo can come very expensive. One tiny graphical error boosted Spain’s 2014 public debt forecast by 10 billion euros ($13.6 billion), the government admitted on Thursday. After announcing the figure to the world, they took four days to issue a correction.
THE CORNER TEAM | By Zsolt Darvas and Silvia Merler via Bruegel | During the crisis the European Central Bank’s roles have been greatly extended beyond its price stability mandate. In addition to the primary objective of price stability and the secondary objective of supporting EU economic policies, we identify ten new tasks related to monetary policy and financial stability.
WASHINGTON | By Jerome C. Glenn via BBVA Openmind| Although many of the trends and possible future developments explained in this chapter can be quite depressing, based on sixteen years of research on the 15 Global Challenges identified by The Millennium Project, I have come to the conclusion that we have the resources and ideas to address them, and that there is more agreement about how to build a better future than is evident in the media, yet decision-making and institutional capacity — so far — is insufficient to make the decisions fast enough and on the scale large enough to build a better future.
By Ray Kwong | Despite the hoopla around China’s new free trade zone which opened on Sunday, details are sparse on exactly how the promise of economic liberalization will help boost the economy.
MADRID | By Francisco López | The situation of the Spanish banking sector is still a recurrent topic in official EU meetings, especially now that we’re a little more than one month of knowing if an extension of the financial assistance program is required. ECB’s Chairman believes that Spanish banks will meet the stress tests in 2014, which seems to remove the possibility of a new aid injection. “Everything seems to suggest that Spain will approach this exercise well-equipped, but of course it is very difficult to guess what will happen with individual banks,” Draghi pointed out.
THE CORNER TEAM | “Banking Union is a decisive step to overcome fragilities and assymetric shots that we have seen within the euro-zone,” says Thomas Mirow from Nordbank at Global Economic Symposium (GES) 2013, which is being held in Germany’s Kiel.
MADRID | The Corner Team | Private debt, Spain’s big burden along with unemployment, is decreasing. Credit to families and businesses went down by 3.9% and 9.4% respectively in August, according to the country’s central bank. This means that money is still not flowing to the real economy as much as it should. However, the positive sign is that credit to families is at minimum since 2007. When it comes to asking for a loan, they think it twice.
MADRID | By Tania Suárez | Angelino Alfano, Berlusconi’s deputy and secretary of People of Freedom, defied “Il Cavaliere” and urged the party to unite behind Prime Minister Enrico Letta on Wednesday. It seems the end of Berlusconi’s political leadership is nearer now that all five ministers from the PDL are stepping down. But he won’t leave without a fight.
LISBON | By Helena Matos via Presseurop | The International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank are back in Lisbon to evaluate the results of the 2011 bailout plan. This is good because otherwise Portugal would make the same mistakes that led to the crisis in the first place.
Iris Mir | During the last decade China’s food imports grew by 21% a year. The country is running out of arable land where to farm basic food like grains and cereals or where to grow its cattle. So it’s going abroad to acquire millions of hectares of land from other countries.