There are repeated calls for more consolidation in the European banking sector. The Bank of France has it clear: strength comes from the European banks merging with their neighbours on the continent.
Ainslie Noble via Atlantic Sentinel | Catalonia’s independence referendum has aroused separatist sentiment north of the border, where a Catalan-speaking minority has long been content to live under French rule.
Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | In an interview over the weekend, the head of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Klaus Regling aside from the optimism on the progress of the current review hinted of one of the options that eurozone lenders might be willing to consider for the debt relief that Greece is due to receive by the end of the programme.
Pressure is high on the UK to offer a better financial Brexit deal and a solution to Irish borders by 4 Dec. in order to unlock the more important talks on trade. A successful exit deal is the precondition to Julius Baer’s base case, which foresees a trade agreement but the loss of the EU passport.
ECB | When consumers are asked which means of payment they prefer, a larger share report to prefer cards rather than cash – despite the fact that they use cash more often. This contradiction may be explained by the fact that nearly two- thirds of the transactions conducted at POS in 2016 were below €15.
Spain’s agricultural sector generated 46.8 billion euros in 2016, 12% of the total for the European Union (EU), making the country the fourth biggest producer, according to figures published on Wednesday by Eurostat.
The collapse of Germany’s coalition talks should not affect the economy or financial markets given that market overcame the shock very quicky on Monday and all the European indexes as well as the US closed upwards. It was also noticeable that was precisely the German DAX the one that increased stronger. However, this political uncertainty in Germany is bad news for Europe as four different scenarios are going forward.
Caixabank Research | Globalisation, technological changes and migration are rapidly transforming the production processes and labour markets of Europe’s economies. Although benefitting society as a whole, they are also increasing inequality and the number of people at risk of social exclusion.
French government has recently announced that they will temporarily raise taxes to the main national companies in order to finance the payback of tax paid on dividends, which was in force since 2012 but has been considered an illegal charge by the country’s Constitutional Court. Societé Generale strategists explain how that payback is going to be implemented as well as who will be the most benefited and affected. Furthermore, analysts focus on the impact of the tax raise itself.
Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | Greek unit labour costs since euro adoption had rosen by 35 % in 2008, compared to less than 20% in the euro area. Greece’s minimum wage was higher than countries that would be considered peers, 50 % above Portugal’s and 17 % higher than Spain’s. In 2010, when the first programme was designed, the labour market was too rigid to deliver what the programme envisaged.