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Spanish economy 20th November 2014

Podemos or Spanish radical’s economics

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.

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Spanish economy 18th November 2014

Eurozone absorbs 50% of the Spanish exports

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).

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Spanish economy 7th November 2014

Reliability of Spanish banks is certified

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. 

 

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Spanish economy 29th October 2014

Spain climbs 20 positions in Doing Business ranking

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.

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Spanish economy 28th October 2014

On the path to normalizing the credit market

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. 

 

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Spanish economy 26th October 2014

Spanish banks pass most stringent stress tests to date with no capital shortfalls

MADRID | The Corner | The ECB did not find any capital shortfall in the Spanish banks, which all passed the highly awaited central bank’s stress tests. Results made public on Sunday reveal that 25 European lenders failed while the other 105 succeeded. Among the big fish only the Italian Monte dei Paschi, the world’s oldest, appears in the failure list. Those 25 European entities will have to face €24.6 billion capital shortfall, but considering 13 of them have already issued part ot these capital needs, they will only reach €9 billion.

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Spanish economy 24th October 2014

Spain: good labour market performance supports growth

LONDON | By Antonio García Pascual at Barclays | The most recent labour market data have been improving at a faster pace than we had envisaged, including results for the Q3 14 Economically Active Population Survey (EAPS). The EAPS shows that employment increased by 151k in Q3 (private sector +155k; public sector -4k). The number of unemployed fell by 195k, standing at 5.4mn. The unemployment rate stood at 23.7% (24.1% sa), compared to 24.5% in Q2 (24.7% sa). The participation rate continues to fall, to 59.4% (sa), albeit at a moderate pace – this is also consistent with ongoing net migration outflows.