Spain


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De Guindos confirms that Spain will start the year in recession

MADRID | All the Spanish press reported the new Minister of Economy, Luis de Guindos’ statements when he confirmed on Tuesday what everyone already knew: that Spain would go into recession in 2012. According to his predictions, the first trimester of 2012 will register a negative growth, just like the last trimester of this year in which the GDP will decrease by between 0.2% and 0.3%. During the inauguration of…



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Spain, a solar energy world leader

MADRID | According to data published by the Spanish Association of the Solar Power Industry, and published today by the digital newspaper El Confidencial, once again in 2011 Spain is the country with the most thermosolar energy power installed in the world. “Spain has 1,100 MW installed, just over twice the amount installed in the US, the second market in the world where some national companies, such as Abengoa, are…


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Spain liberalises online gambling sector

In May, the Spanish government passed a law that will transform and liberalise most sectors of the country’s online gambling market starting at the beginning of 2012. For most of the global market (over 90% of the experts surveyed) the future relevance of the Spanish online gambling market is high. Therefore it comes as no surprise that nearly all operators (ca. 80% of the operators surveyed) are likely to apply for…


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Demand exceeds Spain’s bond sale

MADRID | The Spanish Treasury once again took advantage of the moderation of the interest rates and the high demand to place €5,639.92 million in bonds, more than expected, with the intention of preventing a more complicated situation in 2012, according to Bank of Spain data. The Treasury’s expectations were exceeded for the third consecutive time in December since it was hoping to obtain between €3,500 and €4,500 million. More…


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Spain has new president

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Update Mariano Rajoy, elected by an overall majority on November 20, made his investiture speech on Monday. The investiture debate in the Spanish parliament has been held on Tuesday, and after its closing in the afternoon, Mr Rajoy has been officially sworn in as the new Spain’s president. The announce of austerity measures raised yesterday great expectations, since from the election day and in spite of the…



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“ECB refinancing auctions means help for Spanish, Italian smaller banks”

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided last week on additional enhanced credit support measures to support bank lending and liquidity in the euro area. In particular, the Governing Council proposed to conduct two longer-term refinancing operations (LTROs) with a maturity of 36 months and the option of early repayment after one year. Among other measures, the central bank also accorded to reduce the reserve ratio, which is…