Fernando G. Urbaneja | John De Zulueta, President of the Circle of Businessmen, believes that Spanish society should aspire to reduce unemployment to 5%, and argues that this would liberate more than €26 billion for savings and investment, public or private, in short for a greater prosperity.
Bankinter | The ECB has called attention to the evolution of Spain’s fiscal deficit in its Annual Report for 2018, published this week. The impact on the country’s risk premium, currently around 120 b.p. (IRR 1.12%/1.14%), will probably be negative.
S&P has reduced its estimate of GDP for the euro area by 5 tenths in 2019 from +1.6% in November to +1.1%. In 2020 it forecasts a growth of +1.4% (vs. +1.6% previous), +1.4% also in 2021 (vs +1.5% previous) and +1.3% in 2022.
Emilio José González González via The Conversation | How many immigrants does Spain need to be able to pay the pensions? To put a figure is easy. The IMF, in an analysis entitled Challenges Beyond Financial Sustainability, concludes that 5.5 million immigrants will be needed between now and 2050, equivalent to 21% of the current population.
According to the Ministry of Economy, the increases in FDI result from Spain´s continued above Eurozone average economic growth. At the same time, the figures for Catalonia continued to decline (-12% in the same period).
William Chislett via Real Instituto Elcano | Spain is a happier nation than it was a year ago, according to the World Happiness Report (WHR), produced by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative for the United Nations, and based on Gallup surveys between 2016 and 2018.
Fernando G. Urbaneja | An unprecedented tornado of elections has fallen on Spain in 2019. In the short space of four weeks Spaniards can place their papers with their electoral preferences in at least 5 urns, to elect the Congress, Senate, European Parliament, Townhalls and a good part of the regional parliaments. Spring superelections which will overturn a good part of the structure of the state.
Bankinter | The sale of houses in Spain fell in January (-0.2% yoy). It is the first drop in the last 11 months and shows a slowdown (from +3.8% in December, +2.8% in November, +15% in October). It is the third time in three years the rate has been negative.
Eduardo Moyano Estrada via The Conversation | Spain is an urban country, as shown by the fact that more than 80% of the population live in less than 20% of the territory (and four out of five Spaniards live in municipalities of the more than 30,000 inhabitants). But it also has an extensive rural space, given that around 80% of its territory has an average demographic density of 18.4 persons/km2, with more than half od its municipalities in serious risk of depopulation.