In Spain

Employment November

Spain Reaches 20 Million Employed While Temporary Employment In The Public Sector Reaches 32% Vs 22% In The Private Sector

April leaves 184,577 more contributors to the Social Security system in Spain and 86,260 fewer unemployed. This usually corresponds to a traditionally positive month for employment when it coincides with the Easter holiday period, with its good impact on jobs. The average number of affiliated members in April exceeded 20 million (20,019,080 people) and the number of unemployed fell to three million (3,022,503 unemployed). That said, we continue to lead…


euro digital

The Spanish Treasury Pays For Debt Again

Fernando González Urbaneja | In recent years the European Central Bank, in addition to ensuring price stability (an objective it has achieved), has tried to sustain and stimulate the euro economies by supplying all the credit necessary and at the lowest price imaginable, practically zero. States have benefited from this policy by issuing debt at no cost, even with a few tenths of a yield. The ECB has done its…


Government

Pegasus Case: Government Partners Demand Accountability

A dozen parties that normally vote for the coalition government’s projects, amongst them the partners of Unidas Podemos, last week registered a request for a commission of enquiry into the Pegasus case. They believe that the fact that the PM himself, Pedro Sánchez, and the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, have been spied on aggravates the case, and demand accountability. UN Podemos, ERC, EH Bildu, Junts, PdeCAT, the CUP, Más…


Merlin Properties

Moody’s improves Merlin Properties’ rating from stable to positive (Baa2) after sale of BBVA offices

Intermoney | Moody’s has improved its rating on Merlin Properties (MRL) (Buy, Target Price 13 euros/share) from stable to positive, also confirming its long-term rating of Baa2. Moody’s flags that, with the recent sale of BBVA branches, “the capital structure will remain solid. In addition, the loan to value (the relationship between the debt and the value of the assets) will be below 36%, in line with Merlin’s strictest financial targets”….


spain tax collection

The Treasury Refuses To Deflate Taxes And The State Increases Revenue By 20% As The Economy Slows Down

The Spanish state has collected 54.749 billion euros up to March, almost 10 billion more than in the same period last year. This is despite the fact that GDP then grew by 2.2% compared to the previous quarter, while this year it has barely grown by three tenths of a percentage point. The historic rise in inflation is filling the public coffers thanks to the fact that tax revenues in…


Jerome Powell

Rising Rates, Falling Stock Prices

Fernando González Urbaneja | The relationship between bond and share prices is well known; when bond yields fall, shares are likely to rise. And the opposite is true, the lower the bond yield, the higher the share price. This is the general thesis that admits exceptions and variants. Bond prices are closely linked to the interest rate determined by central banks as well as the risk premium applied to each…


gas grid

The Iberian Solution Could Offer Europe More Gas

Francis Ghiles (Vía Fair Observer*) | The Ukraine-Russia crisis has laid bare Europe’s dangerous reliance on Russian energy. But it has also opened up new opportunities for the exporting of Libyan and Algerian gas. Never has the question of where Europe’s foreign gas supplies come from, and whether there are alternatives to the continent’s dependence on Russia, been so much debated as in recent weeks. A subject that is usually…


No Picture

Grifols reclassifies balance sheet, reducing capital by 830 M€; considers GIC’s investment in Biomat as debt, upping this to €6.480 Bn

Renta 4 | After an internal audit by KPMG of Grifols affiliate Biomat, it has been deemed necessary to reclassify the firm’s balance sheet, considering (Singapore Sovereign Fund) GIC’s capital injection in the subsidiary as debt. This means that at end-2021, the company’s financial debt will rise to 6.480 billion euros from 5.828 billion, after including GIC’s 800 million euros investment in Biomat. Following this reclassification, Grifols capital has been…


electricidad776TC

The Excessive Profits Of The Electricity Companies, Where Are They?

Fernando González Urbaneja | Several ministers in conversations with journalists have complained about the excessive, extraordinary, abusive… profits of the electricity companies. These adjectives have been heard in Parliament from the mouths of more than a few dubiously documented parliamentarians. It would be desirable for such descriptions to be followed by explanations and figures, because where there are no accounts, stories dominate. To begin with, it would be useful to…


Caixabank, Telefónica, El Corte Inglés or Iberdrola, the Spanish firms best prepared to confront 2019

Spanish Firms Contributed More Than 250 M€ Abroad And Benefited 38 M People

According to a study carried out by the PwC Foundation and the CEOE Foundation amongst 64 companies, Spanish firms have raised more than 250 M€ abroad, which has benefited 38 million people. The study also shows that Spanish companies tend to concentrate their social action in certain geographies: 51% of the projects analyzed are present in Latin America, which is the region most covered, followed by sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts…