Fernando Fernández is a member of the board at Bankia and Red Eléctrica. Apart from the challenges presented by the macroeconomic environment and the technology revolution, he believes that Spain’s banks have to establish a new kind of relationship with their clients and consolidate the sector’s new size.
Investors’ fears and their hunt for safe haven assets are having an unsuspected impact on European public debt yields: nearly two thirds of these securities are in negative territory; the German bund is beating a new record low on a daily basis and Spanish debt is approaching the minimum levels recorded in April 2015.
The PSOE party, with 137 years of history, has already had four leaders so far this century, none of whom have consolidated their position. That said, Rodriguez Zapatero succeeded in heading up two relative majority governments and two minority administrations between 2004 and 2012.
Despite the fact that over the last 10 years there has been a lot of feverish activity promoting technological entrepreneurship and help for startups in Spain, so far we still do not have one company which is worth more than 1 billion dollars, what is referred to as a Unicorn.
Ten million Spaniards watched the most important debate between candidates from the four parties which could form a Government in Spain on Monday night. And yet the participants did not clarify the most important point: Will there be a Government after the elections on June 26?
The thesis is reasonable and well-known: greater growth, lower deficit. But what happened in 2015 seems to corroborate another idea: a larger deficit (-5%) fuels the biggest growth in Europe (3.2%). So the government unilaterally raises the 2016 deficit target from 2.8% to 3.6%, while Brussels is going for 3.9%.
The European Central Bank (ECB) will today begin its corporate debt purchasing programme (CSPP). This means it will acquire, via approximately 12 national central banks, investment grade debt issued by companies. Spain could benefit from this programme to the tune of nearly 60 billion euros.
June will be a breathtaking month. The outcome of the British referendum could spark shock waves, causing financial assets to plummet everywhere should the Leave camp win. France could be plunged into disarray as the bitter response to the rather mild labour market reform creates further turmoil and widespread strikes.
Fernando Rodríguez | Telxius Telecom, Telefonica’s new telecommunications’ infrastructure subsidiary, will build and manage Marea, the subsea cable across the Atlantic that Facebook and Microsoft will run from Virginia Beach in Virginia to Bilbao in Spain. The announcement comes at exactly the right time as Telxius’ IPO is about to happen on 2nd June. Analysts consulted by The Corner believe this will go down well with investors. It will also be a companion for Cellnex Telecom, as another representative from this sector in the Spanish stock market.