By JLM Campuzano, analyst, in Madrid | If the governor of the European Central Bank (ECB) said nothing new, why did the markets drop? To be sure, there was a deep sense of disappointment. His comments a week ago had sparked high expectations and, whether Mario Draghi admits it or not, hopes haven’t been met. And there is nothing worse than disillusioned investors. More disquieting, though, is that Draghi acknowledged…
By CaixaBank research team, in Barcelona | After the first six months of the year, it’s time to think about the current situation of the economy and its prospects for the second half of the year. There are two main lines along which the euro area’s activity is running. Firstly, the consensus that its institutional design is not enough to tackle the challenges posed by the current crisis. The absence…
President François Hollande made as many promises as European politicians accustom to lure their voters with during election campaigns. In one occasion, the French leader vowed to create up to 80,000 jobs in the private sector and hire 60,000 more workers in the education department alone. Right now, this would come handy to tackle the country’s rising unemployment. Last June, the headline number of jobseekers in France jumped significantly for…
The European Commission announced Friday it had temporarily approved a bridge recapitalisation via the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) for Alpha Bank, EFG Eurobank, Piraeus Bank and National Bank of Greece. The injection of public capital will be provided under EU State aid rules to ensure the entities’ financial stability. But, at the same time, the Commission said it had also opened four in-depth investigations to examine whether the measure…
LONDON | While the Earth begins to follow the 2012 Olympics' throb, as the Welsh authorities put it Tuesday morning, research to determine whose massive opportunity it is has kick-started. But the scope of the latest studies seems more restricted: instead of holding expectations of a general recovery for the UK's economy, think of particular sectors of the hospitality industry. And think London. According to data collected by Santander UK, London…
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | Hanseatic Brokerhouse's director general in Spain, Gabriel Montalto, said in a conversation with The Corner that international investors have lost trust over Italy and Spain. Also, he considers that both countries will have to publicly accept the reality of the situation if they want to win back the confidence of markets. Question. Apart from the approval of the national parliaments, are there any other…
Financial deceit within institutions whose accountability is precarious has a multiplying effect. The abuse of money immediately passes for an embedded practice, and the actual size of the affair is consequently believed to be much larger. After all, as it happens with European Union officers, taxpayers would despair for the lack of their habitual democratic recourse to make those responsible feel their anger. That is why the latest data on…
LONDON | Morgan Stanley recently estimated that liabilities in fines and damages could amount to as much as $22 billion against the dozen banks allegedly involved in Libor-rigging. No one knows. The dimension of the case could scale up once brought to the courts of justice and the spillover on the markets would be extremely difficult to contain. The risk is all too evident. For instance, when Barclays was sentenced…
By CaixaBank research team, in Barcelona | As the year advances, it seems to confirm that the EU economies of emerging Europe are moving at two speeds, as is also the case of the European Union as a whole. Focusing on the five countries we usually review in this report (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic), the first two are keeping up a slightly faster pace in activity…
LONDON | Germany's imports have kept growing year on year at a moderate pace, with a 2.9 percent increase recorded in May. So have its exports, too. The latest data confirm the German economy as the healthiest core of the euro zone, with an accumulated trade surplus of €73.8 billion in that month, up from the €62.9-billion surplus in the same period of time in 2011. Export activity, indeed, has…