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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
MADRID | By Reuters | Spain new car sales jumped 15.1 pct in November from a year earlier, car manufacturers’ association Anfac said on Monday, the third straight month of rising sales which have been boosted by subsidies.
MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja and Julia Pastor | Repsol is a “rara avis”, a private and listed firm, with public shareholders and indirectly supported by the Spanish government.
MADRID | By J.P. Marín Arrese | As credit institutions gathered in Frankfurt to meet top ECB officials for a first-hand appraisal of the forthcoming common supervision, the Spanish banks proved utterly misinformed. They had taken for granted that domestic sovereign bonds held in their balance sheets could be accounted at their nominal value. Yet Draghi failed to provide any assurance to that effect, hinting the issue being subject to review next year.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Two years, a €100 billion banking bailout, and a comprehensive package of structural reforms later, Spain’s president, Mariano Rajoy, celebrated on Wednesday his 2011 electoral victory. These years’ balance is some sort of bittersweet taste. The country’s external perception has improved, but unemployment and public debt numbers are still a heavy burden.
MADRID | By The Corner Team | In order to ensure the consolidation of the recovery in the Spanish economy, all reforms and modifications should focus on boosting foreign investment in the country. After all, it has demonstrated to be a land of opportunities for smart investors.