euro

In Europe 7th April 2012

Easter read (3) | Two years digging an empty grave for the euro

Many economists and the Anglo-Saxon financial gurus have been killing the euro month after month since early 2010. But, even if their doomsday predictions have miserably failed so far, their negative influence over the markets can not be neglected. By Fernando Barciela, in Madrid | PART 2 | Euro mayhem? The fall of Brussels? Russian domination? German isolation? An article like this has already been published by a serious magazine, The American Spectator, supposedly devoted to calm, profound analysis. Flipping through the pages of Fortune,…

In Europe 6th April 2012

Easter read (2) | Two years digging an empty grave for the euro

Many economists and the Anglo-Saxon financial gurus have been killing the euro month after month since early 2010. But, even if their doomsday predictions have miserably failed so far, their negative influence over the markets can not be neglected. By Fernando Barciela, in Madrid | PART 1 | We heard Noel Roubini prophesying the end of the euro early in 2010 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in a somewhat evanescent fashion (“an increasing risk and an approaching…

In Europe 5th April 2012

Easter read (1) | Two years digging an empty grave for the euro

Many economists and the Anglo-Saxon financial gurus have been killing the euro month after month since early 2010. But, even if their doomsday predictions have miserably failed so far, their negative influence over the markets can not be neglected. By Fernando Barciela, in Madrid | In one of his recent and terrifying articles about the euro and the sovereign debt crisis in the Financial Times, ‘There is no Spanish siesta for the eurozone‘, Wolfgang Münchau found that many…

Markets 3rd April 2012

Fidelity: investors should look again into equity of European companies

LONDON | For all the mayhem some peripheral countries of the euro zone are meant to be causing nowadays, a few investor notes circulate throughout the City with eager eyes looking into opportunities in the European Union. For instance, at investing house Fidelity, analysts pondering about equity income say that the euro region’s debt crisis appears to have gone into a period of remission after the combined impact of a…

Markets 3rd April 2012

Switch on the sterling pound printers, Schroders advises Number 10

LONDON | Although under threats of a possible sovereign debt rating downgrade, the UK’s government showed how to take advantage of the little margin for manoeuvre available when presenting the 2012 budget. Some pro-business measures would boost growth, said investing management firm Schroders, but they will not be enough to avoid a return to the Bank of England’s monetary expansion programme. Schroders released its viewpoint over the coming months and pointed…

In Europe 3rd April 2012

Écouter! French PMI drops most since November 2008

MADRID | Afi analysts drew today investors’ attention to the widening divergence between the manufacturing cycle of the European Monetary Union and other economic blocs. PMI figures of the manufacturing sector fell again in the euro zone’s aggregate indicator, slipping into activity contraction levels. Apart from China’s, the rest of PMI numbers are either consolidated or approach the expansion area. At Afi, experts forecast a EMU GDP downward correction of 0.1pc…

Markets 3rd April 2012

The City is having a good time as some of the worst risks over the euro area ease

LONDON | The volume of business in the financial services sector grew for the eighth quarter running and at well above the average pace in the three months to March. A CBI/PwC Financial Services Survey reported this week green shoots in the City, with the first rise in optimism among financial services firms (+32%) in a year and an unexpected increase in employment in the sector (a balance of +19%). Ian McCafferty, CBI…

World economy 2nd April 2012

Euro zone unemployment 2.5% higher than in the US

LONDON | Jobless rates gave Monday a nasty reminder of an ongoing credit crisis whose effects seem to have depressed further the economies in the developed countries. The euro area (EA17) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10.8% in February 2012, compared with 10.7% a month earlier. It was 10.0% in February 2011. The EU27 unemployment rate was 10.2% in February 2012, compared with 10.1% in January. It was 9.5% in February 2011. The statistical…

Spanish economy 2nd April 2012

In defence of Spain’s 2012 budget

MADRID | Elvira Rodríguez, who chairs the Spanish parliamentary committee on Economy and Competitiveness, and is a former State secretary for Budget and Expenditure, had two words to say about the government’s public budget: rigour and responsibility. Rodríguez published Monday an op-ed in the business daily Cinco Días, probably in advance of the heaviest wave of criticism that the country’s budget plans have had to endure during the last decade. She…

In Europe 2nd April 2012

Italy or Spain? An off-the-record confusion

By Jacobo de Regoyos, in Brussels | The idea that Spain is the real sick man of Europe is catching on again. Suddenly, there is less talk of Greece and Italy. Portugal is going through its particular tunnel in silence. And as for Ireland, almost nobody in the financial media seem to remember its problems. Yet, Spain is back, surrounded but Europe’s ringing alarms. Proof of this is the evolution of the risk premium…

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