By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | In Spain, the fall in the housing prices is intensifying and that is a reason to rejoice. Last July, the average housing price fell 11.2%, but the granting of mortgages went down by 21% in the first half of the year. It is obvious that the owners may not feel comfortable with these decreases, but the truth is that as housing prices keep on…
MADRID | Bankia shares seem to have become a toy amid high volatility on the Madrid stock market index Ibex35. This week so far the entity suffered a -16.08 percent loss of price in two consecutive sessions, after the State fund for banking restructuring FROB announced that stockholders will be partially shouldering, too, the costs of the rescue of the bank with taxpayer money. Banco de Valencia stock fell by -23.8…
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | Here you are, Spain’s updated accrued passive account with Target2 or intra-system operations pending compensation. Its sheer volume and the scale by which it increases clearly expose that we are in for our troubles. How can the euro zone authorities postpone solutions until September? The scenario does not look good. The chart registers data from the Bank of Spain until June. The debt goes…
MADRID | A frozen fish processing company from Galicia, in the north of Spain, was recently awarded the Green Card by the US’ Food and Drug Administration. The FDA isn’t exactly easy-going, but the Spanish firm has already access to the US market and extensive presence in Europe, including Russia. The news isn’t a surprise, of course: the Spanish food industry is successfully competitive, its exports have risen by 8.4…
The seemingly dead weight of the peripheral economies continues to mark a divide within the common currency region. The overall picture, unavoidably, registers the cut. GDP fell by 0.2% in both the euro area and the EU during the second quarter of 2012, compared with the previous quarter. Also according to flash estimates published by Eurostat Tuesday, in the first quarter of 2012, growth rates were zero in both zones. Compared with…
Hundreds of thousands of retail investors may share an uncomfortable feeling these days, that of being trapped under their holdings of what once was commercialised as ‘patriotic bonds’. Unloading them is proving a difficult task. While most sovereign and sub-sovereign debt securities in the secondary market move millions of euros, daily trade volumes of short-term paper issued in 2011 and 2012 by Spanish regional governments rarely reach the modest figure of €50,000….
MADRID | In the dialectics of the confrontation about how much of a national rescue is the aid package being draft by Brussels for Madrid and Rome, politics has so far played the upper hand. Apparently, governments in Spain and Italy would attempt to depict any coming bailout under a different light than that of Greece, Ireland and Portugal so their parties can avoid the stigma of having failed their…
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | Alberto Matellán is director of strategy and macroeconomics at Inverseguros SVB. In a conversation with The Corner, he said that even if Spain doesn’t formally request a bailout, “it will be necessary some kind of intervention.” However, he points out that the possible Spailout would be met via different instruments, and that there is a high probability that a bailout for Italy comes in…
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | Víctor Rodríguez is an economist at CMC Markets Spain. In an interview for The Corner, he said that Mario Draghi’s role is not so decisive in the debt crisis, although we could see important measures being applied by the European Central Bank. Regarding a possible bailout for Spain, Rodríguez considers that “if the country asks openly for it, the most likely reaction will be…
MADRID | Habitat Bankia, BFA Group-Bankia’s property company, announced it has sold over 2,400 real estate assets between January and June of this year. The value of these operations amounts to €230 million. These units from foreclosed assets and the pace of divestment reflects an increase of 17% year on year. In a market environment characterised by continued declines in sales and purchases, the decision of downsizing its real estate…