Ewald Nowotny, a member of the ECB Governing Council said recently he was comfortable with the possibility of an increase in the deposit rate, from -0.4% to -0.2%, “as a first step” before any change in the official interest rate. At April 6, European banks kept 690, 384 million euros in the ECB. It’s the first time, since interest rates have been at a record low of 0%, that an ECB member has talked so clearly about a rise.
The “eternal return” to a proposal to leave the euro seems to be an irresistable force for some people. A current case in point is Italy, but there are a couple of interesting precedents in the files, like Greece and Ireland.
In a note on regional commercial banks, AlphaValue analysts flag that lenders in southern European countries have been amongst the better performers in terms of share price and P/BV. Spanish bank Sabadell is amongst their top picks.
The volume of property investment in Spain rose 9% to 9.2 billion euros in 2017 from a year earlier. This represents a two percentage points increase on the growth registered in Europe as a whole over the same year, according to Savills Aguirre Newman.
John Bruton (Fair Observer) | The decision to opt for Brexit was based on a deep-seated wish to assert an English sense of identity.
Robust economic growth in France in 2017, coming in at 2%, helps ease the restrictions on public finances. The other point worth noting is that the government must use surplus income, or what is known in France as the ‘funding pot’, to rebalance public finance rather than embark on fresh spending measures if it really wants to prove its commitment on public finances.
Is the fact that the state owns a stake in a company, with the corresponding voting rights, an obstacle for it or not? AlphaValue has arbitrarily established the level of 15% as a sufficiently big enough quota to be able to offer an opinion about the strategy which may not coincide with the best interests of other shareholders.
Shares in Siemens health division, Healthineers, made their stock market debut last Friday (delayed due to technical problems) at 28 euros each, closing at 30,20 euros, implying a revaluation of close to 8%. They are trading at 32,04 euros/share today, Wednesday.
The party for Brexit, or more like the wake, has begun and the first victims are some of the most well known brands on the high street.
The almost unanimous wish of the Gibraltarians to remain in the UE makes it difficult for them to fit into Brexit. There are proposals which will benefit everyone, and are far removed from the threats. The Real Instituto Elcano proposes following the models of Andorra and the Islands of Man, Jersey and Guernsey.