By JLM Campuzano, analyst, in Madrid | If the governor of the European Central Bank (ECB) said nothing new, why did the markets drop? To be sure, there was a deep sense of disappointment. His comments a week ago had sparked high expectations and, whether Mario Draghi admits it or not, hopes haven’t been met. And there is nothing worse than disillusioned investors. More disquieting, though, is that Draghi acknowledged…
Financial analysts in Madrid warned that a ban on short selling would depress trading volumes even further while solving very little in terms of investor confidence recovery. At The Corner, we faithfully reported their disappointment with the authorities, whose small sticking plasters of policies would leave structural problems untouched, in most experts’ opinion. In the short term, though, there was something to look forward to. “Bankinter Broker and Afi experts gave…
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | With a little help from the Federal Reserve and the current government, the number of unsold housing in the US is beginning to reach some normalcy. Oversupply, one of the biggest barriers to restore a healthy functioning sector, has stopped. House volume per family now sits at 1992 levels. In Spain, unfortunately, we haven’t even started. The only sure thing about these matters in…
NEW YORK | Their outlook remains negative, but there is some brightness in the horizon, the agency reckons. Standard and Poors will not cut Spain’s rating because it believes the country has done its homework, showing a strong commitment to economic and fiscal adjustment. It will continue to receive support from its European partners and the ECB and therefore its debt will remain below 80 percent of GDP beyond 2015….
BARCELONA | Through its municipal and environmental services subsidiary Cespa, Ferrovial Services announced it has installed the first wind-powered recharging station for electric vehicles in Europe. The station, equipped with a 4 kW wind turbine, is the first in Europe to generate electricity from wind and use it for vehicle recharging. Cespa manages municipal waste collection and cleaning contracts in western Barcelona as well as an end-to-end garden maintenance contract in…
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | On Tuesday afternoon, July 31, the Council for Fiscal and Financial Policy (CPFF by its Spanish initials) will meet the central government in order to establish the deficit target and debt levels of each region in Spain for 2013. It is expected that the regions will adapt themselves to the general targets, which marked a mutual deficit of 0.7% for 2013, 0.1% for 2014…
MADRID | Nobody seems to pay much attention to bad news these days. The stock market shows a bullish bias, recovering from the lows it plunged into driven by fears of utter collapse. Yet, recession has intensified its slide, the second quarter showing a 0,4% GDP decrease. With no prospects of redressing the downturn till the middle of next year, at the best, future outlook doesn’t provide much room for optimism….
By Íñigo Villegui | Capitalmadrid.com | Something is happening in the euro zone. The possibility of a purchase of bonds by the European Central Bank or by a bailout fund, which would favour the tightening of risk premiums and facilitate access to markets for public and private sectors, is getting closer. Or, at least, that’s what investors assume. They have gone from considering that Spanish finances were doomed to dismiss…
The Spanish tether already seems overstretched. On Monday, the national institute for statistics published fresh data confirming a forecast released days before by the country’s central bank, which warned of a contracting GDP: at -0.4 percent, records for the second quarter of the year were indeed 0.1 percent worse than for the first three months. Private consumption and investment have fallen, year on year rates of industrial prices have risen…
MADRID | The Spanish Economy minister Mr Luis de Guindos boldly stated to feel much the same as in the midst of the sell-out tempest, shortly after Draghi’s soothing promise. No one took seriously his assessment and yet he might be right. After all, Draghi is at best offering extra time to put the house in order. His pledge to save the euro has being interpreted as a clear signal to…