BARCELONA | A fiscal effort of 4.4 p.p. should be enough to reduce the deficit by 0.7 percentage points, down to 6.3% of GDP. Given that the effect of the temporary measures is 1.0 p.p., the measures announced might even offset the effect of economic deterioration.
BARCELONA | By CaixaBank research | The German economy has no worrying macroeconomic imbalances. However, this situation might change if it does not stimulate domestic demand.
VALENCIA | By María Costa, via valenciaplaza.com | Entrepreneur Ignacio Tello has found capital and partners to set a Spanish competitor to Ikea.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Spain, according to Schaüble, is a good example of homework done. Germany’s Economy Minister praised labor costs reduction, export rate increase and all the effort the Spaniards have done in reorganizing their financial sector, even after the Troika’s review.
BARCELONA | By CaixaBank Research | Owning a residence is the most usual way for households to accumulate wealth. Consequently, in those countries where a higher proportion of households own their own home, net wealth is higher.
It seems like the million-dollar question: what if the ECB stopped sitting on its hands, change its monetary policy and pump some cash into the suffering euro peripheral countries? George Mason University Economics professor Tyler Cowen wonders about the consequences in his blog Marginal Revolution.
LONDON | By Dr Simon Usherwood | Cameron needs to be able to show that a British agenda of market-based integration has traction in the EU and that he is ‘winning the argument’. He’s being ‘tough’ policy helps little.
MADRID | By Ignacio Mulas at CapitalMadrid | How to fix the most battered sector in Spain by the economic crisis? Construction has lost around 18% jobs in one year. A new European project called Build Up Skills Spain tries to shed some light and recommends public investment to upgrade workers into energy efficiency and rehabilitation. Because that’s the only hope.
ROME | via presseurop.eu | The EU is becoming a corrupt church where Germany rules by a dogmatic economic orthodoxy. Politics must take back control with a protestant schism coming from grass-roots initiatives, argues Italian La Repubblica.
By Skip Worden | In trying to have it both ways—an economic regime and a political union—Hollande was being political at the expense of his own proposal.