MADRID | The Corner | The indicator of economic confidence of Spain stood at 104.2 points, a sharp rise of nine tenths in November, and its highest level since August 2007, Brussels reported. The upturn in confidence in the Southern EZ economy is explained by the observed improvement in the manufacturing sector, services and retail, while consumer confidence and construction deteriorated compared to October.
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Lefty populism is on the rise in Spain, helped by the financial crisis, and a cascade of scandals that has so far tarnished all the traditional (i.e., pre-existing) parties from the Left and the Right. Podemos, the leftie, Hugo Chávez-inspired party that advocates defaulting on the Spanish debt (to the delight of The Financial Times) could win the elections, according to some polls.
MADRID | By JP Marín Arrese | The radicalism of Podemos (we can) has won widespread popular support in Spain, scoring an astonishing result in the latest European Parliament election. It now runs a bitter neck-and-neck race alongside the two mainstream political parties. Its charismatic leader, Pablo Iglesias, has delivered devastating blows to opponents across the board, mercilessly portraying them as a corrupt “caste” all too eager to preserve their petty privileges, while bending to wealthy establishment’ interests. Yet, in an open bid for power, Podemos has undertaken a sweeping U-turn, transforming itself into a conventional party. Its leader has taken over as General Secretary and immediately launched discussions for setting up an economic manifesto.
MADRID | The Corner | One of the risks of the Spanish economy is the significant lost of dynamism in the Eurozone. The latest data of the balance of trade published on Monday explain such fear. Thus, the Spanish exports registered last September a year-on-year rate of 9.6% (-5.1% from the previous month).
MADRID | By Ana López-Varela | The Spanish labour market is bearing it´s teeth towards temporary workers by penalising them excessively. That is the verdict of the European Commission, who highlight concerns in a recent report titled “Wage Adjustment in Spain: slow, inefficient and unfair?” published by the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs.
BARCELONA | By Joan Tapia | The emergence of the leftwing party Podemos (We Can) and the ghost of a forthcoming political instability weight more on Spanish politics than an unquestionable economic improvement (which is too slow and risky). Anyway the advantage of the conservative Popular Party (PP) in power compared to the Socialist Party (PSOE) was reduced during summer from 8.8 to 3.6 points.
MADRID | By Ofelia Marín-Lozano | The Spanish banking system got positive grades in the stress tests for two main reasons: the discrepancy between the accounts published by the end of 2013 and its (minimum) revision by the ECB’s inspectors. According to the asset quality revision (AQR), carried out before the stress tests, the capital ratio of the Spanish banks was only reduced by 20 bases points after the ECB’s revision. This is a minimum adjustment, slightly below the French or German banking system, but well below the Italian, Belgian or Dutch banking. It is certainly well below the big discrepancies detected in Greek and Portuguese banks.
MADRID | The Corner | Spain’s real GDP increased by 0.5% q/q in Q3 14 (flash estimate), in line with market consensus. Experts at Barclays believe that most of the growth contribution came from domestic demand, as weak eurozone growth in Q2 and Q3 likely implied soft external demand from key trading partners, including from the largest three economies.
MADRID | The Corner | The Spanish economy is now placed number 33 among the World Bank’s 2015 Doing Business ranking, improving on last year´s placement of 52. The results of the report show that Spain now offers greater facilities for entrepreneurs. Spain has improved in four of the ten regulation areas that value the ease of doing business, and has improved from 72.24 points to 73.17, closer to the 100 total, which measures best global practices regarding business regulation.
MADRID | The Corner | The Spanish Confederation of Small- and Medium-Sized Companies (CEPYME) points to a “nascent trend” towards a normalization of credit markets, which will permeate down to the real economy over the course of next year.