MADRID | March 3, 2015 | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | The creation of 13,500 new jobs in January is in line with encouraging figures elsewhere in the Spanish economy. While there will rightly be optimism in the wake of the latest data, the worrying plight of the youth and long-term unemployed continue to cause concern.
The Corner | March 3, 2015 | Retail sales in Germany beat expectations in January: they rose by 5.3% instead of the forecast 3.0%, and up from the December’s upwardly revised 4.8% rise. Spanish and German consumers are seemingly much happier about the state of the economy.
MADRID | March 1, 2015 | By Sean Duffy | With positive figures being returned on a weekly basis from the Spanish Finance Ministry, Spain appears to have turned a corner in its quest for financial recovery. Yet while the figures are good news for policy makers, the lingering pall of high unemployment continues to cast a shadow over growth prospects.
MADRID | Sean Duffy | Yesterday brought positive data on the housing front and on job creation, with Spanish bank BBVA prediciting the economy will reap considerable benefits from the falling oil price.
MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | The macro (and micro) piece of data tarnishing the image of Spain is that of unemployment, an anomaly for a developed economy. It is not new but a problem we have been suffering for the last three decades. Even during prosperity times, unemployment reached double digits (8% in the most favourable moments). The last great recession exacerbated the problem and jobless rate soared to 25%, bluffering analysts and market makers.
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Why do they call Economics the Dismal Science? In theory, because it is about using limited resources to satisfy unlimited needs. In practice because, no matter what, everything is always bad in Economics. Case in point: cheap oil.
MADRID | The Corner | The number of unemployed people registered in the Public Services of Employment has fallen to 4,512,116. It dropped by 14,688 people in November with respect to the previous month. This represents the best figure for November since records began in 1996, according to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. The unemployment rate has now fallen for three consecutive months
LONDON | By Víctor Jiménez | Raise the main interest rate? Certainly not. Or not yet, anyway. While the US economy is not showing clear signs of having overcome the assisted breathing phase (i.e. printing money or the recently wound up phase of quantitative easing that the Fed finished two weeks ago), the chances are that the Bank of England will keep the price of the pound at a very low level.
MADRID | By Francisco López | The strength of the dollar –which is in maximum levels and has appreciated by almost 11% against the euro since January 2014, has started to cast doubt among market watchers. Some experts consider that such strong appreciation does not correspond to Janet Yellen’s cautious decisions or to the low inflation expectations at a global level, which leaves room to central banks to maintain loose monetary policies.
MADRID | The Corner | Unemployment continues to afflict Spaniards and official figures released on Tuesday added even more pressure on the authorities: 8,700 more jobless people were registered in August, the first rise in unemployment after six months of improvement.