CRISIS

World economy 14th February 2012

Tough: UK is under negative outlook, no need to blame the euro

LONDON | Will Moody’s tear out the British triple-A badge before those precautionary 18 months go? If the rationale of the warning issued by the financial risk ratings agency to the Coalition government is that the European neighbourhood may in the near future find even harder to charm investors and so will drag the island’s economy with them towards deeper recession, then the top award became meaningless long ago. Markets know this, but still,…

Spanish economy 11th February 2012

Special Labour Reform | Spain will need a lot of social workers

By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | The labour reform approved in Spain on Friday, opens the door for massive lay-offs. A drop in sales for three quarters in a row will trigger the possibility of firing workers with a maximum indemnity of one-year salary. It will foster switching to younger/cheaper manpower, at a relatively moderate cost. Average indemnities before would usually run at threefold that amount. Bad luck for…

In Europe 6th February 2012

British SMEs feel down: they might be right

LONDON | Sentiment among the UK’s small and medium-sized manufacturers fell for the third quarter running in the three months to January, as output stagnated and orders decreased against a backdrop of heightened economic and political uncertainty, the CBI said. Of the 350 respondents to the CBI’s latest quarterly SME Trends Survey published on Monday, 26% said output rose while 25% said that it fell, and the resulting balance of +1%…

World economy 2nd February 2012

Danger: Depression

By Luis Garicano, in London | NADA ES GRATIS (fedeablogs.net). A very brief and worrying observation that the media does not seem to have noticed: the IMF forecast of which the press this week has been constantly talking about and that predicts a decrease in the Spanish GDP of 1.7% does not include an additional fiscal adjustment due to the deviation of the 2011 deficit. That is to say, if the deficit…

aggregation line 30th January 2012

Davos, from rebel igloos to Doctor Who

By Julia Pastor in Madrid, and Ana Fuentes in New York | El País. The Spanish minister of Economy, Luis de Guindo, assured the World Economic Forum at Davos that Spain will set the structural deficit at 0% for the whole of the country’s regional governments from year 2020 on, despite Brussels does let the states fix it at 0,5% “There is a need to send a signal to the markets,” said the minister during…

In Europe 26th January 2012

UK household debt surges in the last year

LONDON | The average family debt in the UK, excluding mortages, has increased by 48% in the past 12 months despite improvements in general levels of income. The latest report from Aviva, an in-depth study into the financial needs of the 84% of the British population who live as part of a modern family, shows a worrying portrait of a middle classes’ lifestyle deeply affected by the current economic climate. Aviva’s…

World economy 26th January 2012

What Obama didn’t say in his State of the Union speech

NEW YORK | In his fourth speech in front of the nation, president Barack Obama addressed the financial crisis and pledged to fight for economic fairness. In the middle of the race to the November election, the president couldn’t find a better moment to speak about inequality. Earlier on Tuesday, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney –Obama’s most likely opponent, according to some experts– disclosed that he paid an effective income…

Spanish economy 21st January 2012

Weekend long read: Spain’s finance and economy ministers open their portfolios to Wall Street and Frankfurt

By Ana Fuentes in New York, and Julia Pastor in Madrid | Right before the three crucial meetings (Eurogroup, Ecofin and European Council) that will take place in the next 10 days, the Spanish government is deploying its best arguments in order to regain markets’ trust. Rajoy’s economic team, the Finance minister Luis de Guindos (left) as well as Cristóbal Montoro, minister of the Treasury, appear in the weekend edition of…

World economy 20th January 2012

Unveiling the actual US unemployment data

Recovery problem: job rate’s pulse is weak, statistics are misleading, and the construction sector –that in 2004 created 14% of the jobs but last year didn’t reach 3%,– looks gloomy. WASHINGTON | According to provisional statistics, the US created 200,000 jobs in December and 1.64 million around 2011, being 2011 the best since 2006 in terms of job creation. The employment forecast for 2012 is 2.1 million –unemployment rate ended the…

Spanish economy 18th January 2012

Fitur 2012: in tourism Spain trusts

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | On Wednesday, the International Tourism Fair Fitur 2012 was inagurated in Madrid. This anual event is the most important of the sector in Spain and it will be open until January 22. This year’s edition is marked by the crisis and the resulting financial adjustments made by the autonomic regions, but also by the widespread notion that the tourism sector is the only one…

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