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competitiveness

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Spanish economy 25th April 2012

Direct investment in Spain increases for the second year in a row

By Carlos Díaz Guell, in Madrid | Global foreign direct investment flows in 2011 increased by 17% year on year, recovering pre-crisis levels. Spain also regained investment flows into equity last year, with a rise in total net investment (total minus divestiture) of 18.2% year on year that reached 1.8% of GDP. Some aspects of this foreign direct investment figure in Spain are worth commenting. For instance, the growth rate was positive…

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World economy 18th April 2012

Emerging markets, opportunity or trouble?

By CBRE’s Eduardo Fernández-Cuesta, in Madrid | In a time of extraordinary global economic and political uncertainty, multinational corporations have focused their growth plans in the opportunities offered by emerging markets. Indeed, they are countries attractive for growth and increasingly popular. Turkey, for example, grew by over 8% last year, becoming one of the fastest growing economies worldwide along with Brazil and Mexico, which has based its spectacular development in recent years…

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Spanish economy 27th March 2012

Spanish companies ready for the external demand pickup

By Carlos Díaz Guell, in Madrid | Activity levels had lately improved, in the private sector although productivity has since 2007 recorded a slowdown, as evidenced by lower growth in Gross Value Added (GVA) of companies, whose figures began to fall in that same year (6.6% versus 8% in 2006) and contracted in 2008 (-2.7%) to drop sharply in 2009 (-7.7%). In 2010 companies’ GVA recorded a recovery in produccion activity…

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In Europe 15th March 2012

European labour costs slightly higher, bad news for competitiveness

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, released Thursday data on hourly labour costs in the euro zone and in the EU. In both instances, the records indicate a very small increase but enough to strengthen the argument of those governments introducing wide-reach labour market reforms. Hourly labour costs in the euro area rose by 2.8% in the year up to the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with 2.6%…

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Spanish economy 7th March 2012

Internal devaluation in Spain and unemployment

By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | I give you today a couple of graphics, which measure how the process of internal devaluation is going in that peripheral crown, Spain. First, the industry labour costs (wages, red line) and producer prices. Then, industrial production. Everything in annual variations. As readers can see, the boom years were not quite as buoyant in terms of industrial production. Meanwhile, wages were well above the prices, at 4%, trimming production margins. It is a reflection of the brick-and-morter boom, which revitalised wages and sturdy houses…

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In Europe 27th February 2012

Sorpresa! Spanish exports grow faster than Germany’s

By Luis Alcaide, in Madrid | In 2011 Spanish exports of goods recorded the highest point after a period of intense growth since 2008. An increase of 16.8% in 2010 has been followed by a positive rate of 15.4% in the last year. The value of exports in 2011 reached the figure of €214.5 billions, which represents a share of 20% of Spain GDP. This share is equivalent to that…