Category: economics
Weekend ongoing coverage (1) | G8′s Camp David: austerians vs growthers
NEW YORK | In the idyllic setting of the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland 63 miles from the White House, world leaders gathered on Friday for the G8 summit. This time, the agenda has real economic substance. Will the intimacy of the lodges in the wilderness help to solve the eurodrama? The pressure is expected to [...]
Bureaucracy, taxes and regulation keep Spanish companies too small
By CaixaBank research team, in Barcelona | The average size of Spanish firms is smaller than that of other countries with a similar degree of development. According to the Central Company Directory, at 1 January 2011, out of the total 3.25 million firms in Spain, 99.9% were small and medium-sized enterprises; that is, they employed [...]
Euro zone exporters should look beyond Chinese demand for growth
LONDON | The euro area continued to run a small trade surplus up to March. This is encouraging on account of stronger import prices, led by energy, in the first quarter of the year. But a closer look into the volumes suggests that import volumes are weakening. Estimates from Barclays Capital analysts put the declining at [...]
Spain’s small companies receive €400-million European credit line
The European Investment Bank opened credit lines in support of small and medium-sized companies in Spain with two €200 loans to Banesto and Banco Popular. The EIB loan granted to Banesto is its first with the Spanish entity under the Bank’s new SME credit strategy and it will facilitate access to finance in the current economic crisis. [...]
Wednesday’s chart: the euro zone holds its GDP, Germany willing
It was Germany, with a 0.5 percent growth of GDP in the first quarter of this year, that helped the euro zone avoid enter technical recession territory. GDP remained stable in both the euro are and the EU during January to March of 2012 compared with the previous quarter, according to flash estimates published by [...]









