MADRID | By J. P. Marín Arrese | Water and power supply would be secured should Catalonia become an independent nation. That’s the only reassuring conclusion the economic think tank set up by the regional government has recently reached. On handling monetary and financial issues, it points to severe problems ahead.
FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | Is austerity at all costs killing us? Germany answers with a resounding “no.” Even though the North-South axis in the European policy is more present than ever, for Berlin “austerity does not punish.” On the contrary: it even purifies. Furthermore, the Stability Pact offers enough flexibility so as to boost growth. There is no room for revision or debate.
MADRID | The Corner | President elected of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker will officially start his mandate on November 1. He describes himself as a “champion of the social market economy” –although he says it would only work with social dialogue, insists that he is not a federalist and calls for a “re-industrialisation of Europe.” What else should we know about him.
ZURICH | The Corner | UBS team reduced on Thursday their Overweight in Global Equities. In the near- term, they see some deterioration in the risk/return trade off, following a large re-rating in equity markets. However, the context is that they are coming from their largest ever Overweight in Equities and that it still remains their favoured asset class (with European Equities as an Overweight).
MADRID | The Corner | A staggering unemployment is one of Spain’s main weaknesses (as the IMF warns), although the forth economy in Europe is so far the best labor performer in the euro area, according to Brussels.
ATHENS | Via Macropolis | Unpaid private debt in Greece is estimated to have reached around 160 billion euros, which corresponds to 88 percent of GDP, but was largely ignored until the last few days, when it became a key issue in the discussion between the government and the troika. Apart from the outstanding amount, the dynamic, which clearly shows a steady upward trend, is also a worrying factor.
MADRID | The Corner | Citi will be the senior advisor in the business, whose preliminary assessment goes up to €3 billion. The major stakeholders would be Energía Villar Mir, EDP and several funds (such as KKR, Riverstone, Brookfield, Blackstone and JPMorgan’s infrastructure fund).
MADRID | The Corner | He praised budget contention and austerity, and yet his first announcement as the European Commission new president has to do with investment: Jean Claude Juncker called for a 300 bn euro public-private investment reindustrialisation programme over the next three years.
MADRID | The Corner | UK Consumer Prices Index (CPI) grew by 1.9% in the year to June 2014, up from 1.5% in May, according to official data released on Tuesday, almost reaching the Bank of England’s 2% target and strenghtening the case for a rise in interest rates which have been held at a record low of 0.5%.
MADRID | By The Corner | Experts at JPMorgan are less worried about near-term disturbances and flows and more about the medium-term outlook for economic growth. Over the past three years, the world economy has grown only at a 2.5% pace, below potential and thus not able to make up for what we lost in the recession. Each year, they keep forecasting that growth will rise to a 3% handle, but have been steadily disappointed.