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Spanish economy 29th February 2012

Spain will “double efforts” to compensate deficit drift, minister De Guindos says

MADRID | The Spain’s minister of Economy and Competitiveness Luis de Guindos announced Wednesday that he will explain the euro group the country’s 2011 budgetary slippages “with transparency and and accuracy,” reports new agency EFE. De Guindos also will defend that this year’s Spain’s commitment to fiscal consolidation is ‘absolute’, in spite of the estimated 2011 ‘complex’ deficit drift of 8.5% (from previous 6%) and the EU’s economy negative growth…

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Spanish economy 28th February 2012

Spain records a staggering deficit

By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | The new elected Cabinet warned in mid-December about a substantial deviation from the planned deficit in last year. Its early forecast pointed to a revised figure of around 8% in terms of GDP, in stark contrast with the 6% target, claimed by the out coming government to have roughly held on line. Final deficit, announced on Monday by the Finance minister, has climbed to…

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Spanish economy 27th February 2012

Telecoms and Telefónica summit in Barcelona: HTML-5, 100mb LTE and Joyn

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | 60,000 professionals and 1,500 companies from more than 200 countries (86 of the participating firms are Spanish) gather since Monday and for a further week in the Mobile World Congress MWC held in Barcelona. It is the seventh meeting edition hosted by the Spanish city, and the first one since Barcelona was awarded the title of Mobile World Capital last July, an honour that…

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Spanish economy 25th February 2012

Weekend read | De Guindos: Spain has a plan [video]

His message was clear, no frills: “We are paying the consequences of Germany and France breaking the Fiscal Pact in 2003,” stated Spain’s economy minister Luis de Guindos on Friday at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington. In his first official visit to the US, Mr De Guindos tried to spur US confidence, explaining the key points of financial and labour reforms in Spain. “Europe and Spain’s main problem…

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Spanish economy 25th February 2012

Weekend read | Spanish innovation? Construction and food, for starters

On the blog Nada es Gratis (There’s no such thing as free a lunch), the economics professor Gerard Llobet has published an article about what he believes will represent one of the key aspects in the future of Spain. What will businesses do if, as it is predicted, the construction sector will lose weight in the post-crisis Spain? Companies will hardly be able to compete with other countries with much lower…

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Spanish economy 24th February 2012

De Guindos to explain Spanish plan to grow

“We have a plan to combine fiscal consolidation with structural reforms in order to jumpstart growth in the country and help stabilize the euro area.” This was the core message of the Spanish minister of Economy and Competiveness Luis de Guindos’ speech on Friday at the Brookings Institution, a center-left Washington-based think tank. In his first official trip to the US, De Guindos also held a meeting with the most…

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Spanish economy 23rd February 2012

Much ado about nothing with Spanish evicted families

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Perhaps the British households in economic troubles because of the crisis and the unemployment impact are mildly familiar with the words eviction or lieu of payment, but more than 150.000 Spanish families have already been evicted and another 330.000 are in the same process. They are destitute families, with all their members unemployed and no additional income, who cannot face up paying their mortgage. On…

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Spanish economy 23rd February 2012

Untimely circumstances for undertaking reform plans

By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | You don’t usually pick up the most suitable moment to undertake a widespread reshuffle of ill-functioning markets. Stiff political and social resistance leads to abandon any plan or hope to do it. As shelving problems don’t settle them, reforms are only accepted under the pressing need to redress a desperate situation. As a result, measures tend to inflict more damage and reap fewer…

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Spanish economy 22nd February 2012

The crisis brings Spain its first trade surplus with the euro zone

MADRID | Spain reached for the first time a surplus in its trade balance with the euro zone in 2011. Exports to the European Economic and Monetary Union grew 9.6%, almost three points more than imports. The weakness of the domestic demand explains the attainment of such a historic achievement, explained the business daily Cinco Días. Four long years of economic crisis have some positive aspects. According to data released…

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Spanish economy 22nd February 2012

Spain’s plan to cancel €35bn debt from regional and local authorities

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Spain’s government is about to attack another of the ills afflicting the country’s economy: the debt that regional governments and municipalities owe to their service providers. The minister of Finance Cristóbal Montoro announced Tuesday that the cabinet will finalise a macro financial operation to cancel this debt, which has reached the €35bn level and has been suffocating Spanish SMEs’ liquidity for years (SMEs’ weight…