BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | The German ambitious switch from nuclear and carbon-based energy toward renewables remains the biggest challenge for the first EU economy. The country’s industrial sector and consumers are worried about how much they will have to pay in terms of prices, competitiveness and jobs.
MADRID | By The Corner | Spain’s production of so-called gold liquid made Spanish company Deoleo olive oil’s world leader. After a sound restructuring, British private equity firm CVC bought a major stake of 29.99%. Just three stakeholders Unicaja (11.35 %), Kutxabank (4.8 %) and Caixabank will guarantee the ‘Spanishness’ of Deoleo. Better than an Italian entering into the company’s capital, which was also considered.
MADRID | J.P. Marín Arrese | The EU seems an endless discussion on futile issues taking place in Brussels. We are all too aware that real decision-making lies in Berlin.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | With seven LNG regasification plants and two connnections to big Algerian deposits, Spain has one of the EU’s highest capacity gas grid. A third infrastructure called Midcat linking the Mediterranean corridor with France remains unfinished, partly because of objections from France and Germany. The European Commission, however, wants to bring down this wall since Midcat could replace 10% of Russian imports and give wider negotiating power against Putin’s threats amid Ukraine’s pre-civil war climate.
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | There was a deflation period in Europe at the peak of the crisis in 2008-2010. Demand policies all around the world erased it and prices increased to 3% annual rate. Then, the resulting austerity policies brought us back to deflation.
ATHENS | By Macropolis | Greece’s 2013 general government (gg) deficit reached 23.11 billion euros (12.7 percent of GDP), while debt stood at 318.7 billion (175.1 percent of GDP), according to first notification released by the Eurostat on Wednesday.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Speculators who dared to buy Spanish debt in 2012 when it yielded 7.5% and priced a record low of 88.6% made a good deal with gains of 38%, now that Spain’s 10-years bonds’ interests near 3% and price stands at 122.6%. Moody’s thinks the country’s sovereign debt is going upwards, alongside Ireland, thanks to its economic, institutional and fiscal strengh. However, Italy’s rating is suffering from the opposite trend.
MADRID | By Ana Fuentes | As ECB officials spend their time debating what form of QE the euro zone needs to fight deflation risk (note that although its inflation target is 2%, the central bank keeps on sitting on its hands while its balance sheet is shrinking), more data point to the positive effects of unconventional measures on growth. Check this one recently published by the Bank of England: the mere announcement of a QE shot corresponding to 1% of GDP caused a 0.36% real GDP increase and a 0.38% CPI rise in the U.S. –a little less in the U.K. Indeed, hope can move mountains… and money.
MADRID | By The Corner | A good gauge to measure EU consumer’s confidence, the regional car industry points to its recovery. Car sales increased by 8.4% in 1Q14 to 3.24 million of vehicles, while number plate registrations grew by double digits 10.6% in March to 1.44 million.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | In the Spanish banks restructuring process, the €100 bn credit line coming from Brussels was crucial. However, Spain’s financial sector also saved itself by transferring €7.5 bn from the banks in better conditions to those that were nationalized, basically via contributions to the Deposit Guarantee Fund and the national bad bank Sareb. [Picture: “Banks should pay for the crisis”]