The CNMV and the government have been trying for years to get the big companies and Spanish banks to issue debt in Spain. But despite some reforms having been made, Spanish companies continue to head for Europe and even farther afield to ask investors for money.
Endesa registered net profit of 253 million euros in the first quarter of 2017, down 26% from a year earlier, due to the impact of the “high” prices of electricity in the wholesale market. Its dividend yield is still attractive at 5.7%, while the share price has also been supported by rumours of a corporate deal.
Italy’s government debt could set to be 133% of GDP this year – a level that is some 34% higher than it was at the end of 2007. Meanwhile, Ireland’s debt shot up as the government had to bail out the housing and banking sectors post-2007 and by 2012 it was very close to the same level as a percentage of GDP as Italy’s (123%9).
French elections will likely serve as a way to take the populism temperature, as well as being the next step towards de-globalisation. As the Dutch general elections showed, the populist drive may prove to be not as strong as anticipated by the polls. But most of the media is presenting the French elections in this way. Furthermore, it has to be considered the fact that the pollsters underestimated the force of populism last year in the UK.
Benjamin Cole | The econosphere is again rumbling about Chinese debt and China banks, evidently forgetting the long serious faces made many times about Chinese debt and China banks in the recent past. But China keeps growing. Japan is another story that defies Western orthodox macroeconomics.
Telefonica posted profit of 2.369 billion euros in 2016, up 3.8% from a year earlier. Last year’s figure reflected non-recurrent items, mainly a 1.290 billion euros charge in the fourth quarter related to restructuring costs. Excluding that charge, profits rose 4.8% to 4.038 billion euros year-on-year.
Nearly six months after Telefonica announced the IPO of its infrastructure affiliateTelxius, venture capital firm KKR said it plans to buy 40% of the company for 1.275 billion euros, or 12.75 euros per share. So one headache less for the Spanish telecommunications giant.
There are some items of Spanish public debt which are eliminated from Bank of Spain’s accounts, reducing the total figure. In other words, 450 billion euros ignored. Basically, what is being removed is public companies’ debt, the debt issued by a public institution in the hands of another public institution, as well as other adjustments, which really should not be discounted.
Greece’s creditor countries in Europe do not feel like giving it a debt ‘haircut’. Furthermore, Greece says that the IMF is too pessimistic about the future. But Europe wants the IMF’s participation, which would give the agreement a greater hallmark of respectability.
Reagan is a precedent for Trump as Krugman says. We can envisage what Trump’s early years will be like thanks to Reagan. And we could see a similar situation to what was known in the Reagan years as the twin deficits due to the size of the fiscal and external deficits.