Spanish Retail Sales Go Back to Positive Rates
MADRID | By The Corner Team | The General Retail Trade Index annual change at constant prices stood at 2.0% in November, two points and a half higher than that registered in October.
Spanish economy
Spain’s Current Account Surplus Fell in September to EUR 340m
MADRID | By The Corner Team | The Spanish current account balance recorded a surplus of EUR 1.7 billion in October, after September’s small surplus of 0.1bn. Foreign trade is helping the recovery, helped by better competitiveness and domestic demand weakness.
Balance of a tourist record year for Spain
MADRID | By Francisco López| By the end of November 57.6 millions of international tourists had arrived Spain with British, German and French leading the visits. It mean a 5% increase over the same period of 2012, but domestic demand still burdens results.
Banesco challenges hard Spanish banks’ market share
MADRID| By Fernando González Urbaneja| The Spanish banking industry has a very solid position and it is not easy to win market share from it. Citi, Barclays, BNP, all of them with commercial experience and financial muscle failed in the attempt. Now it is the turn of Venezuelan Banesco, which has just acquired Spanish bank NovaCaixaGalicia (NCG), stemmed from the country’s financial system restructuring and intervened by the state since October 2011, at €1.000 million.
Some sort of green shoots grow in the Spanish housing market
MADRID | By Carlos Díaz Güell | Despite the Spanish residencial housing market weakness, main offer and demand variables are seemingly beginning to stabilize, pointing that real state starts and sales will reach a minimum level in 2013.
Will Spain’s risk premium let the government sleep at last?
MADRID| By Julia Pastor | Spain’s credit quality and solvency is increasingly improving. The country’s risk premium closed at 219 basis points on Tuesday to its lowest level since June of 2012, and under Italy’s. Also Spanish 10-years bonds neared 4% yield, more than double than the German ones. Public debt investors do not have much better options.
Corruption ranks second in Spaniards’ worries
MADRID| Fernando G. Urbaneja| Spanish leaders try to diminish the importance of corruption in the country’s political sphere. They say it is not a general practice, that cases in the public eye are manageable exceptions. But citizens do not seem to agree.
Moody’s Changes Outlook on Spain’s Rating to Stable from Negative
LONDON | By Moody’s Investors Service | Moody’s changed the outlook on Spain’s Baa3 government bond rating to stable from negative last Wednesday. Concurrently, Moody’s has affirmed Spain’s Baa3 government bond and (P)Prime-3 short-term rating.
Spanish November Jobless Claims Fall for First Time in 17 Years
MADRID | By Ben Sills at Reuters | Spain posted the first decline in November jobless claims since at least 1996 as economic activity stabilized after a five-year slump.
SPECIAL: Sovereign Funds’ Scope Reaches Spain
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Sovereign funds’ bet on Spanish companies continued to be strong during 2012-13. Spain and its brands were these global investors’ favourite picks in the euro zone, overcoming English, German or French firms. The trend is to be renowed in 2014 because of their strong presence in the emerging markets of Latin America.