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inflation rises

One step forward, two steps backward for inflation: data starts to look more erratic after first big downward adjustments in late 2022

Santander Corporate & Investment | There are no divisions here, inflation data are undoubtedly starting to look more erratic after the first big downward adjustments at the end of 2022, falls that raised hopes of a pivotal moment for central banks and explained a large part of the unprecedented January rally in the markets. Base effects will be the main ally for much of 2023, but our economists believe that…


Ursula

European Commission upgrades forecasts but inverted German debt curve points to recession

The European Commission has raised its 2023 growth forecast to 0.9% vs 0.3% and lowered its inflation forecast from 6.1% to 5.65% for this year. The note highlights that domestic demand could turn out to be stronger than expected if the recent declines in wholesale gas prices are passed through to consumer prices more strongly, which we doubt, and consumption proves more resilient. In fact, this has had little reaction…


UK 777x400

UK dodges recession in last quarter of 2022 with 4% GDP growth

CoM | The UK economy, the second largest in the Old Continent, stagnated in the fourth quarter of 2022, narrowly managing to avoid going into technical recession, following a 0.2% contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of last year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has reported. Despite dodging recession in the last quarter of 2022, the British economy contracted by 0.5% in December, after growing…


inditex

Inditex sets minimum wage of €18,000 for its 6,477 shop staff in Spain

Inditex has reached an agreement with the trade unions setting a fixed minimum wage from €18,000 for all employees in the shops of the group’s different brands throughout Spain, an amount to which will be added other variable payments such as those linked to seniority, commissions or night work, among others. It also approves aid for children and adoption, salary increases on Sundays and public holidays, higher commissions and bonuses….


pedro sanchez

A government opposed to employers and profits

Fernando González Urbaneja | This is nothing new. Placing successful entrepreneurs and corporate profits as targets of electoral political debate has been part of the agenda of more than a few political parties, especially the most extreme ones, both on the right and on the left. The novelty now in Spain is that the president of the government and of the socialist party is taking up this argument as one…


green new deal

EU seeks to emulate one of IRA’s advantages, simplicity of access, by streamlining green investment tax credits

Banco Sabadell: According to press reports, the EU plans to respond to the US $369 billion (€340 billion) Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) by relaxing state aid rules on tax credits for green investments. A portion of the €800 billion NGEU fund could also be directed towards tax credits. By relaxing restrictions on tax credits, the EC seeks to emulate one of the advantages of the IRA, simplicity of access. The…


Wall Street

Mega dividends under suspicion

Ricardo Jiménez (Harmon) | Albertsons is the second largest food supermarket chain in the United States, by number of shops. The company has more than 2,200 outlets, employing nearly 300,000 people. Its sales exceed $75 billion.  In October 2022 it received a takeover offer from Kroger, the largest chain in the country, for a sum of close to twenty-five billion dollars. The merger of the two companies will create the…


China stocks markets

China growth 3% in 2022, lowest since 1970s, while population falls for first time in 6 decades

Banca March | The weakness of China’s growth in the latter part of last year was confirmed yesterday. China’s GDP stagnated in Q4 2022, registering zero growth compared to the previous quarter, bringing cumulative growth in 2022 to +3% year-on-year, the second lowest annual growth since 1970. Despite this, it is worth noting that the 4Q growth figure was higher than expected (a contraction of more than 1% quarter-on-quarter was…


Climate change

The 4 guidelines top global institutional investors will follow in 2023

F. Rodríguez |Top global institutional investors will intensify their pressure on issuers on different points related to aspects of ESG in the coming year, according to the bi-annual survey Institutional Investor Survey carried out by Georgeson. It includes individual interviews with specialists of this group of firms, with assets under managment equivalent to over 40 billion euros. The four big trends discovered by the survey are as follows: 1. The investors…


ArcelorMittal

Arcelor, biggest opportunity for a rerating and biggest “mispricing” (Overweight)

Morgan Stanley | China’s reopening trade and the support for its property market has sparked a strong rally in the steel sector and in underlying commodities, leading the stocks to already discount a recovery in demand during 2023. Now there is an <8% average upside to target prices, so the risk/return is not attractive. The base scenario assumes a recovery in China in Q2’23. However the road will be bumpy,…