Spain

Markets 30th July 2012

Spain’s power utilities: 11pc more profits, 56pc drop in stock prices

By Luis A. Torralba, in Valencia | Electricity producers in Spain have managed to weather the crisis under the umbrella of extraordinary income from non-recurring profits. But the markets, in spite of historically high dividends, are letting the uncertainty over the pending energy sector reform drag stocks down with a vengeance. Some declarations bring little help. The minister for Energy and Tourism José Manuel Soria recently gave away a warning:…

Interviews 28th July 2012

ECB governor Draghi’s words act like a balm on the raging crisis

MADRID | The importance of being a central banker was starkly shown by the dramatic change in market mood following Thursday’s soothing statement by Draghi. His open commitment to support the euro skyrocketed share quotes and drove sharply lower Spanish and Italian risk premium. All of the sudden doomsday scaremongering vanished, an overwhelming wave of up-beat optimism taking its place. Draghi’s closing remarks that the ECB would keep to its mandate…

World economy 27th July 2012

“Eurozone’s institutional failure does not allow it to deal with financial crises”

Economist Ricardo R. Reis expects “better policymaking from the European authorities now.” Originally from Portugal, Reis teaches at Columbia University, he is a former graduate from the London School of Economics and Harvard Ph.D and has worked extensively on inflation dynamics and monetary and fiscal policy, including evaluation of fiscal stimulus programs. He gives his take on the current economic turmoil for our readers in the first of a summer…

Spanish economy 27th July 2012

Spanish unemployment: no good news until summer of 2013

MADRID | Analysts at BNP Paribas’s broker Cortal Consors in Spain said in an investor note that their scenarios for the situation of the unemployment levels would not register any improvement until the second half of next year. Occupation is still under a heavy destruction trend in Spain, with a -4.1 percent during the second quarter of 2012. Unfortunately, data released today by the Spanish institute of statistics backed pessimistic…

Companies 27th July 2012

Write-downs take 80pc of CaixaBank’s profits, push core capital to 13pc

BARCELONA | CaixaBank reported Friday a poor attributed January to March net income of €166 million as a result of provisions enforced by the Spanish government, set to clean up the balance sheets of the country’s banking sector. For the Catalan entity, the figure means an 80.1-percent cut down comparing to the first quarter of 2011 and bears the scars of large write-downs of €3.735 billion. CaixaB ank said that, as…

Companies 26th July 2012

Telefónica’s dividend back to orthodoxy

MADRID | There will be no dividend from Telefónica over the next fifteen months. The decision is not surprising but consistent with the situation. Yet, it has a devastating effect on many investors the company had promised to pay 77 cents in December as a second dividend in the year, and again in May. The company will now retain its full profits within the 2012 balance sheet (€4-€5 billion) to reduce…

Markets 26th July 2012

Spanish real estate exposure halves Santander profits

MADRID | Banco Santander announced Thursday a net attributable profit of €1.704 billion in the first half of the year. The figure brings a cut down of about 51% compared with the same period in 2011. The Spanish bank pointed out that the decline is a result of setting aside €1.304 billion for provisions for real estate exposure in Spain of the second quarter ordinary profit of €1.404 billion. As a…

Spanish economy 26th July 2012

Former governor of the Bank of Spain delivers a scathing blow to the government

MADRID | The Spanish government had good reasons to avoid Mr Ordóñez’s appearance in the parliamentary committee reviewing Bankia’s plight. His cold determined performance flatly exposed gross government failure in addressing the financial crisis. His indictment was based on the nagging fact Spain risk premium ranked last December markedly lower than Italy’s and now even Ireland shows a better record. He accused the government of leaving aside the Bank of…

Markets 26th July 2012

Stock markets only dodged adversity

By CaixaBank research team, in Barcelona | Although the first half of the year has ended with a negative balance for most international stock markets, the latest months has been characterised by a relative improvement in indices. The reduction in fears that Greece will leave the euro and the euro area’s assistance in recapitalising Spain’s banking system marked a turning point in the trend for investors’ appetite for risk. Although…

Spanish economy 25th July 2012

The chart of the Spanish regions’ debt

MADRID | The chain of default warnings is getting larger. If the regions of Murcia and Catalonia confirm they need help from the €18-billion central fund to repay its debt maturities, as Valencia explicitly did on July 20, the autonomous bailout would reach so far €7.7 billion. Of them, €6 billion could be made available with almost immediate effect, as Loterías del Estado would be the lender. The regions’ short-term…

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