By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | The Spanish government will unveil today its budget bill for 2012. In the good old days, analysts and observers bent over its pages to find the clues for public sector priorities in the year. Nowadays you can dispose of such a demanding task. Brussels has unravelled its complexity, reducing the whole exercise to the simplistic aim to meet, no matter how, the deficit…
MADRID | In a note to investors, Morgan Stanley analysts let go a few words from the bright side of their view on some of the euro zone countries that have endured the worst part of an altogether bumpy week. And here at The Corner, we cannot help but spread the love. Experts at Morgan Stanley maintain their estimates for the general GDP of the European Union, which points at…
NEW YORK | US media coverage of Spanish general strike was scarce in the morning, and increased during the day, never making the biggest headline. The online edition of major generalist or business newspaper didn’t include it among their main subjects, or did only briefly. NYT kept it in a low position. WSJ reported on it only on its World section, and the strike wasn’t even the leading headline there….
On March 29 at midday, while those joining the nation-wide protest in Madrid celebrated that a major store like Cortefiel had begun to close its doors, electricity demand recorded an almost imperceptible 1.5pc shorter fall that the 17.5% drop caused by the last general strike seen in the country, back in September. Having it had no discernible impact then, it seems rather logical to assume that this one will not leave any…
NEW YORK | Yields on Greek bonds are the highest ever. Spanish and Italians are pretty good also. If they pay back, it could be a very sweet deal for every savvy investor. And private assets are on sale too. In 2010, Apollo Global Management bought a portfolio of distressed property loans owned by Credit Suisse for about $1.2 billion, a roughly 50 percent discount to the face value, according…
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | In this post of economistsview, by Economics professor Mark Thoma, there is a number of charts of several countries and their evolution post-financial crisis. The aim is to probe whether such crises leave temporary or permanent effects. Here I select the one about Spain, where we can see its GDP. In mid-1973, the first oil crisis came in and Spain’s GDP sort of missed its natural path, which never regained. Well, this is old news, many would say: during the…
MADRID | In the sector’s consolidated income statement, the Spanish Banking association AEB reported on Wednesday a net interest income of €50.725 billion, which is an increase by almost 2% of the amount reached in 2010 and maintains profitability levels over average total assets (ATA) at 2.23%, with just a one hundredth less difference. All with an evolution of ATA by 2.7% higher than those managed in 2010. EAB admitted, though, that the…
By Juan Pedro Marin Arrese, in Madrid | Big banks in Spain have entered the merger race purchasing former nationalised entities. This sudden shift from previous reluctance to get involved in rescue deals is seen by many observers as a move to fence off pressures to salvage Bankia. According to this view, there would be great concern in financial circles over an institution that seems too big both to fail and…
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | There is talk lately in the euro area about the capacity of our firewall, about what sort of volume it should reach in order to frighten the bond markets. This firewall is, of course, the European Financial Stability Facility, the current bailout fund to be replaced in 2013 by the European Stability Mechanism. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has surprised everyone by saying she is willing to…
By Carlos Díaz Guell, in Madrid | Activity levels had lately improved, in the private sector although productivity has since 2007 recorded a slowdown, as evidenced by lower growth in Gross Value Added (GVA) of companies, whose figures began to fall in that same year (6.6% versus 8% in 2006) and contracted in 2008 (-2.7%) to drop sharply in 2009 (-7.7%). In 2010 companies’ GVA recorded a recovery in produccion activity…