JP Marín-Arrese | The attempt to tax banks, large corporations and targeted polluters for filling the pension gap and increasing covering social spending, seemed a cunny initiative squaring the circle. On top of getting extra money, imposing a burden on the well-off always prompts widespread popular support. An outcome all the more welcome when the general elections loom close ahead.
BancaMarch | The Spanish Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) maintains buoyant expectations for the growth of the country’s economy.
Arinsa | No government, even with the frail parliamentary minority enjoyed by the Pedro Sanchez administration, can allow itself the luxury of forgetting the current duality of contract in the labour market.
Ofelia Marín-Lozano | A decade after the beginning of the financial crisis, net profits in the Spanish banking sector continue the upward trend begun in 2012, but the profit per share is much less favourable. Given that the number of shares has increased (overall, more tan double the number in 2007), the net profit per share is less than a half pre-crisis levels.
Spain’s new prime minister Pedro Sanchez is envisaging to increase taxation on banks. Although the project is still in its infancy and needs the support of Parliament, experts at Alphavalue believe the assessment of the impact could be largely watered down.
In Spain, there are 120 people older than 64 for every 100 younger than 16. This figure contrasts with that at the end of the 20th century, when the country was still young: in 1985 there were 46.7 people older than 64 for every 100 under 16.
The Spanish government intends to close down Spain´s nuclear power stations as they complete 40 years of useful life, a period which comes due in 2028. Endesa, as of now the major nuclear operator in the country, considers it “impossible to dismantle all the power stations at the same time” as the 40 years is completed. On the contrary, Iberdrola goes along with the government’s theory and sees that it is “perfectly practical”, and will have no impact neither on the supply nor prices.
Miguel Navascués | The high retail interest rates in Spain, over 8% compared to at least 4% in France and other Eurozone countries, without doubt indicates usurious behavior, of the banks’ abuse of power at the expense of the customer, who on the other hand ought to inform and educate himself and refuse to pay these rates. I would say that, in fact, there is an oligopolistic factor in Spanish banking which stamps its slant on the interest rates it charges.
Aids and subsidies from public administrations to Spanish companies have fallen by 42% to 1.201 billion euros, according to the ratings agency Axesor. Central administration aids were reduced by 84% to 144 million euros, while the rest (1.057 billion euros) are coming from the autonomous regions. The presence of the state increased during the first years of the economic crisis, but from 2012 there was a change.
J.L.M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) | In a modern world ever more dominated by technology and the growing digitalisation, the performance and weight of investment in intangible assets draws attention. We are talking about software and R&D, but also about data and whatever activity that generates property rights and economic competences, including publicity and staff training