MADRID | The new Spanish president Mariano Rajoy has announced the names of the 13 ministers who will make up his cabinet, the smallest in the history of democracy. The new government will have just one vice-presidency (the former Economy minister was also vice-president) that will be held by Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, a 40-year old politician and the person known for being highly trusted by president Rajoy. Sáenz de…
In May, the Spanish government passed a law that will transform and liberalise most sectors of the country’s online gambling market starting at the beginning of 2012. For most of the global market (over 90% of the experts surveyed) the future relevance of the Spanish online gambling market is high. Therefore it comes as no surprise that nearly all operators (ca. 80% of the operators surveyed) are likely to apply for…
MADRID | The Spanish Treasury once again took advantage of the moderation of the interest rates and the high demand to place €5,639.92 million in bonds, more than expected, with the intention of preventing a more complicated situation in 2012, according to Bank of Spain data. The Treasury’s expectations were exceeded for the third consecutive time in December since it was hoping to obtain between €3,500 and €4,500 million. More…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Update Mariano Rajoy, elected by an overall majority on November 20, made his investiture speech on Monday. The investiture debate in the Spanish parliament has been held on Tuesday, and after its closing in the afternoon, Mr Rajoy has been officially sworn in as the new Spain’s president. The announce of austerity measures raised yesterday great expectations, since from the election day and in spite of the…
MADRID | The Spanish investment website Consenso del Mercado reported about the Spanish Treasury’s positive results in placing its bonds on Tuesday. Spain’s public Treasury sold over €4.941 billion in bonds at 12 and 18 months, more than expectations marked, at considerably lower rates than in previous auctions. This means that Spain has passed the first market test after the agreements that were reached last week in Brussels. With this sale, the…
MADRID | According to the Spanish daily newspaper Expansión, the A400M (the largest European military airplane) made by Airbus Military is waging a double war. In the first place, it must comply with the new deadlines that were established after the programme was restructured last year. In second place, it must sell 400 planes in order to amortise the three year test flight delay that the prototype suffered and that cost €8…
MADRID | The Spanish press on Wednesday published reports of the newly elected Spanish President Mariano Rajoy’s trip to Marseille, where he will meet with US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and then, later on, jointly with French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Rajoy will also have the opportunity to meet with the president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, and with the Polish…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | One year ago, the European Union approved a four-year extension from 2014 to 2018 for the loss-making coal mining sector subsidies, which affected some Spanish working mines. Even though the Spain’s Secretary of State for the EU Diego López Garrido considered then “ it was good news for the whole of the Spanish mining industry, especially for coal mining,” the truth is that the…