J.L. M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) | Según los datos publicados la semana pasada por el Banco de España la tasa de morosidad cayó en octubre hasta un 6,08%, 1,7 puntos más baja que en diciembre y muy por debajo del 8,41% de hace un año.
Spanish think tank Funcas points out that around 60% of the historic improvement in the current account balance comes from the adjustment of cyclical factors, in particular, the economic cycle and the evolution of the oil price, and 40% can be attributed to structural reasons: the process of fiscal consolidation, the ageing population, lower long term growth expectations and gains in competitivity.
Inflation fell six decimal points in November to 1.7%, the lowest in seven months in Spain. Within the deflationary evolution, almost general across components, energy process (electricity and oil) stand out. Analysts at Bankia Estudios predict a further fall for next year: It will recover in the first months of 2019 to around 2% and close the year at 1.5%.
The times of wage containment are beginning to be left behind in Spain. The ILO and the OECD themselves favoured an increase in the minimum wage, basing itself on the slight improvement in productivity over the last two years, but the first question is whether the proposed increase in the minimum wage is possible.
Joan Tapia | We should not over dramatize, but the Andalusian result does not incline us towards optimism. We should not rule out the possibility that a political sphere dominated ever more by conflict could negatively affect the economy. Even if up until now it has not happened. As the saying goes, the pitcher goes so often to the well that in the end it breaks.
William Chislett | The Spanish Constitution turns forty today. The country now is another planet. The next 40 years, however, will be very different. The challenges ahead will test the cohesive society that has been created up to the present day. This article finishes a series that have been published in last weeks by The Corner to celebrate the milestone anniversary.
Despite the slowdown in Spain’s exports, the number of national companies starting to export and of regular exporters which have been exporting for four years in a row are rising. How strong these exporters are is the question that CaixaBank Research answer analysing the geographical diversity of the destinations to which they export.
The Spanish economy invested a total of €14.052 billion in research and development (R&D) in 2017, the equivalent of 1.2% of the GDP, according to Spain’s National Statistics Institute. Although this percentage is 6% higher than the previous year, “Spain would take 180 years to reach the 3% target set by the European Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy,” says Xavier Ferràs, Associate Professor in the Department of Operations, Innovation and Data Sciences at ESADE.
William Chislett | In the Franco regime and well into the 1980s, the lion’s share of Spanish banking business in a strongly protected and highly profitable market was in the hands of the so-called Big Seven and those banks, affiliated to or associated with them. The Big Seven have morphed over the past 30 years into the Big Two, as a result of a wave of mergers, after Spain joined the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1986.
The housing market continues to show an intense dynamic. Sales increased 9.7% in September, and drives an accumulated figure of 395,534 operations in the year so far, the largest volume in this period since 2008. Although the vigour is seen in all segments, sales of new houses stand, up 11.5% up to Q318.