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british economy

In Europe 7th April 2014

British economy: in construction

LONDON- THE WEEK THAT WAS | By Víctor Jiménez | One in five homes built in the UK since last April have ended sold through the program Help to Buy, according to the largest stock market listed estate agent in the UK, Countrywide. This figure shots up to more than 50% in northern England where the housing sector had fallen into a deeper recession than elsewhere. In London, a resilient spot, one in ten homes have seen contracts exchanged following the heavy but comforting hand of the state.

 

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In Europe 4th April 2014

Popular to purchase Citibank’s retail banking business in Spain

MADRID | By Ana Fuentes | After months of conversations and rumours, Citi is closing a deal with Spanish Banco Popular to sell its retail banking business in Spain, including 45 branches and 300 employees, sources close to the operation confirmed to The Corner’s Spanish stock markets site Consenso del Mercado on Thursday.

oro china

In Europe 4th April 2014

Why was China carrying gold?

SCOTTSDALE (ARIZONA) | By Keith Weiner via Truman Factor| I would discourage everyone from making too much out of the Chinese gold carry trade. It’s not a giant conspiracy to buy up all the gold, while suppressing the price. It is not some farsighted plan to anticipate the collapse of the dollar by owning hard assets.

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In Europe 3rd April 2014

ECB likely to bet on inaction again

MADRID | By The Corner | Bundesbank’s Jens Weidmann shift, more inclined to consider bonds purchases, basically reponds to pure economic policy. Although it could anticipate those are closer than ever, it does not mean that ECB is to take action in today’s meeting. Most of analysts at Madrid’s financial place agree that Draghi would be more explicit regarding eventual tools to fight deflation- or low inflation as European authorities prefer to call it now-. He could announce some kind of corporate financing support such as securitization’ buyings at most. 

energy security2

In Europe 3rd April 2014

Shale and European Energy Security

What does the shale revolution mean for European energy security? An increase in localized production would shift dependence and decrease the exorbitant prices that European consumers pay for energy. Currently, electricity costs in Europe are roughly triple American prices and double Japanese prices.

abertis

In Europe 2nd April 2014

Abertis mirrors Spanish economy’s take-off

BARCELONA| By Julia Pastor| In present Spain’s context of timid recovery, any positive sign in any sector is more than welcome. Abertis, the world’s largest toll road operator running more than 7,300 km, announced the country’s 2014 road traffic figures increased for the first time since 2008. The firm also forecasts a global spending of more than €1.3 bn in the current year. Yet Abertis partly reflects the Spain of  bankrupcies and bail-outs. The company is major stakeholder of some recently collapsed motorways expected to be saved by the authorities.

minijobs

In Europe 1st April 2014

SPECIAL REPORT: Are minijobs a solution for Europe?

BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | Europeans never stop listening to ideas for economic reforms. One potentially successful option, with support from Europe’s leading institutions for smaller economies, is the ¨minijob¨.

But are these atypical jobs the solution to move Spain’s 26 percent unemployment rate closer to Germany’s 5 percent?

britain

In Europe 31st March 2014

How Weidmann confounded currency market investors

LONDON- THE WEEK THAT WAS | By Victor Jiménez | Did Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann just had a Mario Draghi-like moment? In July 2012, while bets against the survival of the Eurozone community of countries remaining whole piled up to stress levels that presaged a self-fulfilling prophesy, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, let go in his now famous London speech a “we’ll do whatever it takes” to protect the common currency whose deterrent consequences have rippled to today: we might be messy, the message conveyed by Draghi came to mean in the British City and Wall Street, but we know how to make the anti-euro speculative bubble burst; and it is an easy thing to do.