Renfe is delaying by up to three years the construction of 31 commuter trains for 258 million euros, to be used on ‘Cercanías’ lines mainly in Cantabria, but also in Asturias, Euskadi, Galicia, Castilla y León and Murcia. The thirty or so trains that Renfe promised in 2020 will be delayed by at least three years due to a miscalculation in the dimensions of the convoys, which means that they…
Fernando González Urbaneja | Public systems are not working; waiting lists in hospitals are lengthening; primary care services are collapsing; and Social Security and SEPES offices are not responding… Miguel Valverde one of the best informed journalists on pensions and labour relations describes in Monday’s Expansión what he calls the “Colapso de la Seguridad Social”. It is impossible to get an appointment by telephone or in person. This has been…
Fernando González Urbaneja | This is nothing new. Placing successful entrepreneurs and corporate profits as targets of electoral political debate has been part of the agenda of more than a few political parties, especially the most extreme ones, both on the right and on the left. The novelty now in Spain is that the president of the government and of the socialist party is taking up this argument as one…
Pablo Fernández | The average return of mutual funds in Spain over the last 15 years (1.1% p.a.) was lower than the investment in 15-year Spanish government bonds (4.4% p.a.). The average return of the IBEX 35 was 0.5% p.a., that of the Eurostoxx 50 was 2.8% p.a. and that of the S&P was 8.8% p.a. Some 31 funds out of the 580 with a 15-year history outperformed 15-year government…
The year 2023 is marked by the regional and municipal elections in May and the general elections in December. This fact is noticeable in the budgets dedicated by the Government to institutional advertising. The plan approved in the last Council of Ministers foresees an expenditure of €145.98 million in campaigns of all kinds. Since Sánchez arrived at the Moncloa, the number of institutional campaigns has not stopped growing. From the…
The data on tourist movements at borders (Frontur) made public by the Spanish statistical institute show that the figures for the end of 2022, which are close to 72 million registered tourists, are still 14.3% below those recorded in 2019, a record year for Spanish tourism in which 83.7 million foreign visitors to our country exceeded 83.7 million. For the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, these data…
CABK increased its net interest income by 15.7% year-on-year, to EUR 6,916 million, while its net commissions reached EUR 4,009 million (+8.2% year-on-year). In this way, the gross margin increased by 12.8% year-on-year, standing at €11,594 million, also exceeding (+2%) the figure expected by the FactSet- consensus. On the other hand, recurring administration and amortization expenses increased by 1.5% year-on-year, to €6,020 million, which raised the net or operating margin…
Spain closed January with 215,047 fewer people affiliated to the Social Security system and 70,744 more unemployed, according to data published on Thursday by the Ministries of Social Security and Labour. Unemployment increased in January by 70,744 people to 2,908,397, according to data from the Ministry of Labour. Unemployment has increased by 2.5 % compared to the previous month and represents a decrease of 6.9 % compared to January 2022….
Banco Santander (SAN) reported a profit of €9,605 million in 2022 (+18% in current euros), after gaining €2,289 million (+1%) in the fourth quarter. Annual net interest income rose to €38,619 million (+16%). The bank pointed out that “the effect of the rise in interest rates on net interest income has not yet been fully reflected in Spain, Portugal and the United States”. On the dividend policy, it said that…
Mohamed VI’s approach to Pedro Sánchez tarnishes the High Level Meeting (HLM) between Morocco and Spain, which La Moncloa expected to be “historic”. The Alaouite monarch did not receive the President of the Government yesterday on his arrival in Rabat for a bilateral summit that had not been held in this way for eight years, and limited himself to dealing with diplomatic formalities via a phone call from Gabon. Over…