The Bank of Spain has confirmed that the Euribor rate, the reference index for most Spanish mortgages, ended January at an average -0.253%, compared to -0.263% in December, representing its fifth consecutive monthly rise. Despite this rebound, the market assumes the index will remain in negative territory at least until 2022,given that the European Central Bank is likely to maintain its expansive policy.
Unemployment rose in January by 90,248 people and the Social Security system lost 244,044 members, the worst figure since 2013, when Spain was trying to emerge from the crisis. All the Autonomous Communities, except for the Balearic Islands, have seen the unemployment rate rise in all sectors except construction, so some Autonomous Communities already have more unemployed than in 2019.
Spain was the second country in the European Union to receive the most funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB) in 2019, with €8.96 Bn for 92 projects. This was 6% more than in 2019, the entity’s Vice President, Emma Navarro, explained on Monday during the presentation of the EIB’s results in Spain. The EIB allocation of €2.24 Bn for the fight against climate change, 75% more than the previous year, makes Spain also the second country in Europe in terms of climate financing.
Latin American investment abroad reached 38,255 million dollars in 2018, an amount similar to that of the previous three years. The main investors were Brazil and Mexico, and to a lesser extent Colombia and Uruguay. Latin American Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Spain amounts to 40,517 million euros, which represents an increase of 200%, in the last ten years.
The supermarket chain DIA and the unions representing their staff have just signed the new collective bargaining agreement for the period January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021. This includes salary increases for the company’s 16,000 employees.Under the terms of the new agreement, modules A and B have been combined into one. This will have a salary of 13,700 euros for 2020 and 14,000 euros for 2021.
Spain’s central bank highlighted the need for structural changes in the public pension system to ensure its long-term viability, while warning against the reversal of those already made. According to a simulation exercise presented by the entity, the revaluation index introduced after the 2013 reforms, which decoupled the rise in pensions from CPI, was the main reason behind lower pension expenditure.
Randstad, the leading human resources company in Spain and worldwide, has developed a study on the rate of employed people who are actively seeking another job. For this, it has analyzed the data of its last Workmonitor study corresponding to the fourth quarter of 2019, based on more than 13,500 surveys of working professionals from 33 countries
Unemployment fell by 112,400 people in 2019, 3.4% less than in 2018, registering its seventh consecutive annual decline. This drop is the smallest since 2013, when unemployment fell by 85,400 people. The fall in unemployment was four times less in 2019 compared with 2018.The jobless rate stood at 13.78% at end-2019.
Alphavalue | The demand for mortgages in Spain fell sharply between October and December 2019, registering its biggest drop since 2013. The worsening of the housing market prospects and, to a lesser extent, regulatory and fiscal changes are among the factors.
Link Securities | The presence of far-left party Unidas Podemos in the Spanish government, may force a new push-back in the privatization of the bailed-out lender Bankia (BKIA), scheduled for 2022, according to Spanish newspaper Expasión.