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In Europe 14th August 2014

The IMF crisis and how to solve it

ATHENS | By Gabriel Sterne via The Agora | The IMF is approaching its 70th birthday and the Greek programme has been a candidate for one of the most credibility-sapping in its history. Here I trace the IMF’s role in programme from its stormy launch; its misfiring implementation; the Fund’s half-hearted apology; and ongoing efforts to draw lessons and revise its sovereign debt restructuring framework, which appear destined to deliver insufficient meaningful change.  A transparency revolution is both necessary and feasible. It worked for central banks in the 1990s. Why not the Fund?
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In Europe 14th August 2014

Germany: the sick market of Europe?

BERLIN | Alberto Lozano | Some figures were already announcing during the last weeks that Germany was losing momentum. Its equity market also was the 3rd worst performer since the European market peaked on June 10th, so the GDP fall of 0.2% in the largest economy of the Euro area is not a surprise. A negative effect from the balance of exports and imports and a fall in construction are the main causes for this slight GDP decrease. However, both households and government consumed slightly more than in the previous quarter. Therefore, growth in consumption and imports might be a positive signal for the Europe’s largest economy in the coming quarters of 2014.

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In Europe 13th August 2014

German investors lose their confidence in Europe’s growth engine

MADRID | By J. J. Fdez-Figares (LINK) | After the rises experienced by the European and American stocks on Monday, these markets showed yesterday certain weakness, leading to a mixed closing in the major indices in Europe and negative in US. Thus, and since the beginning of the day in Europe some profit taking by the short-term investors were observed, who profited from the rebound that many values experienced on the day before. As there was a lack of relevant developments in the three main geopolitical conflicts (Ukraine, Iraq and Gaza), the investors’ attention turned to macroeconomic data, particularly towards indices released yesterday by the German institute ZEW.

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In Europe 8th August 2014

Germany’s domestic demand might be taking the helm

BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | At the end of the week, good news are coming from Germany’s trade data. After calendar and seasonal adjustment, German imports rose by 4.5% on the month, rebounding from a sharp fall in May (-3.4%) with the highest month-on-month increase since November 2010. In addition, German exports increased by 0.9%, narrowing the criticised surplus to 16.2 billion euros from 18.8 billion the previous month.

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In Europe 6th August 2014

Russian sanctions start to impact on Europe’s export powerhouse

BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | While yesterday downs on Wall Street were marked by rising tensions in Ukraine, negative data from German manufacturing orders also seem to to be influenced by the geopolitical risks and the Russian sanctions’ impact on the eurozone’s economic recovery.

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In Europe 4th August 2014

Portugal rescues BES with €4.9bn coming from Troika’s bail-out

BERLIN | Alberto Lozano | The Portuguese government splits BES into two banks. On the one hand, it will inject €4.9 billion of capital in a new company called “Novo Banco”, which will get all the assets and employees from the crisis-hit bank. On the other hand, all toxic assets mostly related to its exposure to the Espirito Santo family will stay in the current Espirito Santo’s “bad bank”.

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In Europe 1st August 2014

BCE: Widespread decline in interest rates of banking corporate credit

MADRID | The Corner | The ECB reported on Thursday the data of interest rates applied in banking corporate loans in June, which have been reduced by 18 bp in loans worth up to €1M for the EZ (up to 3.57%). Moreover, these discounts have been widespread and even higher in peripheral economies’ banks: -21 bp up to 4.3% (weighting by GDP of rates applied in Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal).