Data published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business show that Spain’s trade deficit has increased significantly so far this year. Between January and August, the trade deficit rose by 30.5% compared to the same period of the previous year, standing at €45,818.2 million. Although goods exports set a historical record by reaching €264,182 million (up 3.2%), import volumes grew at nearly double that pace, widening the trade balance…
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The recent escalation of social tension in France, featuring an intense wave of protests and riots over the high cost of living, has ultimately dealt a direct hit to market confidence in the country’s sovereign debt. The spread between the yield on the 10-year French bond and the German bund (France’s risk premium) has surged to near 148 basis points. This is a peak level not seen since 2012, during…
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The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, has warned that the global economy’s resilience is reaching its limit, which is why countries urgently need to fix their public finances—as “winter is coming”—as well as address growing global imbalances, for which “China needs to spend more; the United States, save more; and Europe, invest more.” At a press conference in Bangkok during the IMF and World Bank…
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Rosa Mª García Piñeiro, board member at Caixabank, Acerinox, and Ence—serving as chair of the sustainability committee for the latter two and as a committee member at Caixabank—explains that “the directive does not set the materiality threshold. The company decides it based on its own criteria. There is nothing in the legislation that prescribes what is material and what is not. The auditor-verifier may have one opinion, the company may…
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Says Antonio Bonet, president of the Club of Spanish Exporters and Investors. He points out that “Europe has a single tariff applied by all member states, but the U.S. applies a tariff to each country, meaning it can decide that the tariff applied to Spanish black olives is higher than that for Italian olives, as it did at one point. So there is a part of the negotiation between Europe…
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