J.L. M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) | The Spanish banks have made a big effort over the last few years to provide solutions for more than a million households experiencing difficulties in meeting their mortgages repayments. We estimate that over 10% of current existing mortgages have been refinanced or restructured.
Spain may not be the most common point of entry for most migrants and refugees to Europe – last year it received only two percent of arrivals – but it does seem to be facing increasing challenges in this area. Cities like Málaga and Tarifa, on the south coast, are currently struggling to manage arrivals, which so far this year have doubled those of the equivalent period in 2016.
Last week the Spanish government announced an offer of nearly 20,000 jobs in the public sector. The offer consists of: 10,318 free entrance posts in the General State Administration and the Justice Administration, as well as a further 5,350 internal promotion posts. There is also a one-time offer of public sector employment involving 4,285 newly created jobs in priority sectors where there is a “deficit” like the Inland Revenue Office, Social Security, Work Inspection and National Identity Document and National Traffic offices.
The Basque region-based industries, like the automotive and aerospace, are global and cutting hedge. They export between 70% and 90% of their production, achieving surpluses for the region’s trade balance, of some 5 billion euros in one of the last few years.
If you’ve had trouble hailing a cab on the streets of Madrid, Barcelona or many other cities in Spain recently, there’s a good chance it was because of a taxi drivers’ strike. There have been a number of these in recent months, all with the same aim: to halt the expansion of ride-sharing firm Uber.
This week Spain ratified its free trade agreement with Canada, known as CETA (Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) in spite of the suprising abstention of PSOE. Spain’s trade relations with Canada date back to the XVI century.
J. L. M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) |What is the main concern for Spain’s SMEs? The lack of clients. This is what they have revealed in the latest survey published by the ECB, covering the period from October 2016 to March 2017. And what about financing? It was once again the least of its worries, something which has been the case since the start of the year.
The PSOE, which governed during two terms of office with an atypical leader, Zapatero, is now so disorientated that it’s suffocating and looking to leftism for some air without any basis. It’s on the point of taking Pablo Iglesias’ bait, that a Grand Coalition against Rajoy is possible.
The Bank of Spain’s report on the financial and banking crisis in Spain has left the sensation that the institution, by action or by omission, has failed in its supervisory responsabilities and allowed practically all Spanish lenders to operate without any kind of control. The worst thing is that situation has continued. The bank has been the but of heavy criticism for how it acted with respect to Banco Popular’s resolution.
The main shortcoming of the Bank of Spain’s report on the Spanish banking crisis lies in its lack of a convincing analysis of the reasons why banks proved so vulnerable. It identifies their excessive exposure to residential mortgages, as well as their heavy reliance on external financing. But it fails to plainly set out what went wrong with the world’s financial sector.