Renta 4 | The ECB plans to require banks to include the effects of the war in Ukraine in the internal capital adequacy assessment process as it is dragging on longer than expected. The ECB wants banks to include analyses of various scenarios on the impact of second-round derivatives as a result of the war, such as downward revision of economic growth. Opinion: We consider the ECB’s request to be…
Intermoney | Italy starts the spring season affected by drought in the northern part of the country and higher than expected temperatures during the winter months. Authorities estimate a water deficit between 50%-90% compared to 2021, with particular declines in the Piedmont and Veneto regions. The Po river has suffered falls of more than three meters in certain points, which, together with the distortion caused by the unseasonal heat to…
Ángel Luis González Esteban (The Conversation) | The Russian invasion of Ukraine has raised fears about the supply and prices of wheat, an essential foodstuff for millions of people. Numerous headlines have echoed the international escalation of prices, while popularizing the expression the breadbasket of Europe to refer to Russia and Ukraine. Will there be enough wheat for everyone? It is somewhat ironic to ask this question in the European…
ASE Group | Russian gas supplies to Europe from Russia have increased since the war broke out because of long-term contracts, in place between European buyers and Russia’s Gazprom, which include strict commitment clauses. All parties are committed to respecting them or face serious losses. This is why Grazprom is avoiding direct economic sanctions from Europe.In any case, Russian flows are not back to normal for this time of year….
Fernando Rodríguez | “Although there have been improvements since the first assessment at the end of 2020, no bank fully meets supervisory expectations” on environmental and climate risk reporting, according to the latest report of the European Central Bank (ECB) with data analyzed as of November 2021 on 109 entities under direct supervision. Although more than 70% of banks provide information on how their boards of directors monitor these risks…
Sebastian Zank & Anne Grammatico (Scope Ratings) |New investment in nuclear power could help Europe stabilise diminishing supplies of baseload electricity as coal and old nuclear power stations close – without relying just on natural gas as an alternative – but only in the longer term. Nuclear reactors with a total capacity of more than 20 GW are scheduled for decommissioning by 2030. Europe had a double energy challenge – even…
Good news? In Russia, JP Morgan claims to have processed interest payments on two of the country’s sovereign issues, raising expectations of default on its debt for the first time since 1998. This has not prevented Standard & Poor’s from downgrading the country’s credit rating by one notch to CC, just two notches above default, in its belief that the country’s debt is “highly vulnerable to default”. In China, according…
Norges Bank (the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund) has just published all its holdings in the five continents at the end of 2021. Europe’s largest investor has shares in up to 74 Spanish listed companies, 10% of which are in the real estate sector. Specifically, it is committed to the developers Aedas, Neinor, Metrovacesa and Insur and the socimis Merlin Properties, Inmobiliaria Colonial and Lar España. However, it has only increased…
U.S. chip giant Intel has announced an initial investment of more than 33 billion euros, rising to 80 billion over the decade, to boost microprocessor production in the European Union, including setting up a mega-factory in Germany, as well as doubling the capacity of its facilities in Ireland, along with other projects in Italy, France, Poland and Spain. This first phase includes the construction of two semiconductor factories in the…
Econ Pol Europe | In the short term, a halt to Russian energy imports could cost Germany up to 3 percent of its gross domestic product. This is the result of estimates by the EconPol Europe network calculated with a simulation model. Oil and coal could be replaced by imports from other countries, but it is harder to find replacements for gas, the authors write. “Germany should take quick and…