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In Europe 9th March 2012

Mário Soares: Portugal and Spain must tell Mrs Merkel enough is enough

The Latin Bloc may be awakening, after all. The least it could be said about the Spanish government’s decision of bending the public deficit target bar Brussels and Berlin intend to impose, from a harsh 4.4pc to a softer 5.8pc, is that president Mariano Rajoy has enlivened with his move the not-just-austerity talk and the perhaps-Germany-is-wrong debate. In the Friday edition of the Spanish daily El País, former president and…

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In Europe 9th March 2012

Nordkapp’s Pablo Díez: “devaluation would be swift, austerity is slow and painful”

By Julia Pastor and Tania Suarez, in Madrid | Pablo Díez, at Nordkapp’s asset management department argues that implementation of austerity as the only measure to sort the crisis out will bring social chaos in Europe. Yet, Díez is unsure about how right Spain’s president  Mariano Rajoy is in rejecting the deficit target of 4.4% this year. Do you think it would have been ‘suicidal’ to commit Spain to Brussels’…

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Companies 8th March 2012

Valencia-based little giant Mercadona makes a 19pc-net profit jump

Spain’s largest supermarket chain increased its turnover in 2011 to €17.831 billion, 8% up from 2010’s figures. The company, whose headquarters are in Valencia, brought some Mediterranean sun over the Spanish economy when it released this week its 2011 results. Mercadona’s productivity growth rate was 2%, earning a profit after tax of €474 million or 19% more than in 2010. Also, the supermarket has created 6,500 new permanent jobs in 2011,…

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Spanish economy 7th March 2012

Internal devaluation in Spain and unemployment

By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | I give you today a couple of graphics, which measure how the process of internal devaluation is going in that peripheral crown, Spain. First, the industry labour costs (wages, red line) and producer prices. Then, industrial production. Everything in annual variations. As readers can see, the boom years were not quite as buoyant in terms of industrial production. Meanwhile, wages were well above the prices, at 4%, trimming production margins. It is a reflection of the brick-and-morter boom, which revitalised wages and sturdy houses…

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In Europe 7th March 2012

This is not a Madrid-Brussels fight

By Fernando González Urbaneja, in Madrid | Explaining the Spanish public deficit problem in 2012 in terms of confrontation between the government of Mariano Rajoy and Brussels is wrong and misleading. So far Brussels has not penalised members who do not meet their programmes, but has rather come to help achieve the objective, with more or less enthusiasm and more or less requirements imposed. Brussels may begin proceedings for an excessive…

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Spanish economy 6th March 2012

What they said when president Rajoy bent the deficit target bar

LONDON | Odd. After months of mild fireworks of demonstrations against austerity throughout Spain, it seems hard to believe that Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, international economics editor at The Daily Telegraph, would be struck. Even president Mariano Rajoy acknowledged that his reform plans for the labour market would probably spark a general strike. But Evans-Pritchard was struck, nevertheless: “In the twenty years or so that I have been following EU affairs closely, I cannot remember such a…

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Spanish economy 5th March 2012

Spain is right to abandon a suicidal 4.4% deficit target

By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | Mervyn King sharply pointed out that banks are global in life but turn national in dying. The opposite can be applied to deficit targets. When you enjoy a comfortable budgetary position, you are able to fix them at your own wish. Brussels may get the sulks if you go beyond certain limits and fall into excessive overruns. But it can do very little…

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Spanish economy 5th March 2012

Spain’s mortgage market isn’t falling, it just is repairing

By Carlos Díaz Guell | In 2011, for the first time in recent history, the stock of finance for house purchase recorded a fall. The number of mortgages granted on housing dropped by 33%, that is a quarter of the transactions that were completed in 2006. This correction, which will most probably happen again in 2012, follows the evolution of the real economy. But it also is the result of a process…

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Spanish economy 2nd March 2012

Spanish hotels must be booming

They are thriving, actually. National statistics office INE on Friday published January’s data for the hotel sector in Spain and figures were all bright, a repeated event that has lately become a relief spot and an anchor for the economy of the country. Foreign tourist numbers were up by 4.6pc year on year to 2.78 million, average revenue per room rose by 0.1pc to €68.3 million, and occupation was 37.4pc…

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Markets 1st March 2012

Italy and Spain gain easier access to credit markets

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | The hangover following the second LTRO round has brought no headaches, so far. Analysts at the Spanish bank Sabadell have described as ‘very positive’ the €530 billion demanded to the ECB last Wednesday, as well as the increase of the participating European financial entities to 800. “It can be said that attending these auctions is not a stigma anymore,” say the experts. Furthermore, they…