By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | The very logical answer from the European Central Bank’s president Mario Draghi to the Spanish claim for that institution intervening was a rejection. Instead, Draghi demanded Thursday that European leaders make up their minds on how the euro will be in a year’s time. Draghi also argued in favour of a “banking union”. News agency Europa Press reported his declarations. “Can the ECB fill the…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | The idea of a suffocated Spanish banking sector spreads like fire throughout the markets: Bankia’s nationalisation, Moody’s cut, the French president François Hollande advising to recapitalise the sector… But the International Monetary Fund will publish next week a report that assures 70% of Spain’s financial entities are already restructured. This news should help tame and perhaps even extinguish the flames. Analysts at Madrid’s financial City also…
From Afi analysts in Madrid, an investor note came Monday with the picture of that much talked about capital flight from the euro peripheral banking systems in the form of non-financial private sector bank deposits. The variation this year, although somewhat noticeable, has not accelerated and volumes remain above 2010 levels in Portugal, Spain and Italy. Greece, on the other hand, shows a seemingly non-stoppable drop since 2009. All in…
LONDON | Investment company Threadneedle told clients that the market has increasingly moved its US economic forecasts towards more conservative views. Threadneedle explained in a technical note that, although it had updated its forecast for US economic growth in 2012 from 1.5% to 2% after some strong first quarter data, it too remained of the view that the US economy will slow in the second half of the year. Analysts said some…
LONDON | If you haven’t heard of it, you have simply not been on planet Earth: Grexit was the trendiest word this week, but for the wrong reasons. Would Greece exit the euro zone, shuttering prospects of an approaching global economic recovery? The matter was not whether the Hellenic nation could stand the heat coming from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which assured the…
LONDON | The euro area continued to run a small trade surplus up to March. This is encouraging on account of stronger import prices, led by energy, in the first quarter of the year. But a closer look into the volumes suggests that import volumes are weakening. Estimates from Barclays Capital analysts put the declining at around 1% in January to March 2012 from the same period in 2011, after a…
In March 2012 compared with February 2012, seasonally adjusted industrial production fell by 0.3% in the euro area and by 0.4% in the EU. In February production rose by 0.8% and 0.4% respectively. In March 2012 compared with March 2011, industrial production dropped by 2.2% in the euro area and by 1.9% in the EU. These estimates were released this week by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In March 2012 compared with…
LONDON | Were the tide changing within the shaken frontiers of the European Monetary Union, austerity-driven core euro nations could do worse than open the European Investment Bank’s window to let some fresh capital aid in. Barclays analysts said Friday in a note to investors that using the EIB to complement budget constrictions would be a feasible option and the probability of this happening is growing: this time it is…
In March 2012 compared with February 2012, the volume of retail trade rose by 0.3% in the euro area and by 0.7% in the EU. In February, retail trade fell by 0.2% and 0.5% respectively. In March 2012, compared with March 2011, the retail sales index dropped by 0.2% in the euro area, but grew by 1.0% in the EU. These first estimates came from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In March…
MADRID | Following German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s instructions, those supposedly at command in Euroland zealously repeat that growth and austerity are not in contradiction. Beware about such a slim talk. Their underlying message is that fiscal compact must be preserved at all costs, growth delivery amounting to a merely cosmetic make-up. Eurocrats are working out ways to sell through financial engineering the same money under a more “à la mode” disguise….