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Worrying facts about the Spanish deficit

By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | The way the data on the Spanish deficit snowballed from 6% in mid-December to 8% a few weeks later and to 8.51% now, has led many to raise their eyebrows in utter disbelief. Even allowing for some benign neglect shown by the out coming government, such a huge deviation adds little credit to budgetary figures outside central administration boundaries. It not only proves…


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Spain’s plan to cancel €35bn debt from regional and local authorities

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Spain’s government is about to attack another of the ills afflicting the country’s economy: the debt that regional governments and municipalities owe to their service providers. The minister of Finance Cristóbal Montoro announced Tuesday that the cabinet will finalise a macro financial operation to cancel this debt, which has reached the €35bn level and has been suffocating Spanish SMEs’ liquidity for years (SMEs’ weight…



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Weekend link fest

A curated selection of links we hope can enlighten us all; some come from our corner, some do from other corners of the net. And as always, our comment widgets are anxious to get your suggestions. The euro debt drama explained in 100 words It’s not the banker’s pay system, populace! EC’s Tajani: don’t worry Cameron will U-turn Former Santander banker, now Lloyds boss says no to bonus Manufacturing jobs rise…


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Rajoy to Spain’s banking sector: “be transparent and merge”

MADRID | In his the first interview granted to Spanish media as Prime Minister of the Spanish government and after a number of weeks of silence (which has been heavily criticised by the press), Mariano Rajoy explained to new agency Efe some details of his political and economic project for the country. Among many aspects, he spoke of the restructuring of the financial sector for which he announced a re-organisation plan,…