ATHENS | June 15, 2015 | By Nick Malkoutzis via MacroPolis | Greece’s negotiations with its lenders over the last few days have been more like a ride on the ghost train than a roller coaster, producing moments of sheer panic punctuated by brief spells that allow the palpitations to subside.
LONDON | June 15, 2015 | Barclays | The banking system has lost nearly 23% of its deposits since November 2014.
MADRID | June 9, 2015 | By JP Marín Arrese | From the very moment Ms Merkel vowed to put an end to the Greek crisis, she filled the Hellenic sails with hopes of snatching extra concessions. Athens seems well aware that the German Chancellor is under heavy pressure to secure a deal before the G-7 meeting, and that it will profit from this unexpected manna. It will play these winning cards until they become obsolete.
The Corner | May 26, 2015 | The improvement of financial markets in 2014 allowed the issuance average cost of the Spanish public Treasury to go down to 1.46%, about 100 basis points below 2013 levels. Spanish premium risk fell by 114 basis points to reach an average of 120 points in December, according to the Bank of Spain. (Chart above: Spain Generic Govt 10Y Yield; Source: Bloomberg)
BEIJING | May 24, 2015 | By Zhang Yuzhe, Huo Kan and Xing Yun via Caixin | A bond program that takes aim at China’s local government debt problem could raise 1 trillion yuan, yet cut creditor yields.
ATHENS | May 18, 2014 | By Manos Giakoumis via MacroPolis | The ongoing and troubled negotiations between Greece and its lenders, as well as the weekly meetings of the European Central Bank’s governing council mean that there is growing concern about the extent to which Greek banks will continue to be able to draw emergency liquidity to cover the outflow of deposits.
MADRID | May 12, 2015 | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | The show of confidence belies an economic weakness: half of Spain’s debt is in the hands of foreign investors. After the uncertainties leading up to the summer of 2012, they are once again stocking up their portfolios with Spanish securities.
ATHENS | May 11, 2015 | By Manos Giakoumis via MacroPolis | Recent Greek budget data showed the huge revenue gap of 968 million euros recorded in January narrowed to 389 million by the end of the first quarter (Q1) of 2015. At the same time, primary expenditure, which was just 53 million better than target in January, displayed a strong outperformance of 1.18 billion by the end of March.
The Corner | May 11, 2015 | As Athens enters a critical week –it has to pay about €750 million euros ($837 million) to the IMF tomorrow and needs some sign of progress at today’s Eurogroup in Brussels–, very few voices are still talking about a Grexit scenario. “Greece will meet its commitment,” analysts at Bankinter stress. “In 70 years of the IMF’s History no developed country has defaulted.”
The Corner | April 29, 2015 | Amid speculations about a Greek deal (see examples of the bipolar opinion landscape here and here), market makers seemed more apeased yesterday but still have their doubts about the post June situation. “The yield on 3-year Greek debt remains very elevated and suggests that ‘market access’ is unlikely to be afforded to Greece at acceptable interest rates any time soon,” experts at BNP commented.