MADRID | One-off cuts and further squeezing measures have been taken in a desperate attempt to avoid budgetary discomfiture. By mid-term central government deficit had already attained its full year target, not to mention a regional and local performance no one knows for sure where it stands. A drastic brake to such blatant slippery became an [...]
Emerging Europe: at two speeds
By CaixaBank research team, in Barcelona | As the year advances, it seems to confirm that the EU economies of emerging Europe are moving at two speeds, as is also the case of the European Union as a whole. Focusing on the five countries we usually review in this report (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and [...]
Germany can enjoy a weaker euro
LONDON | Germany's imports have kept growing year on year at a moderate pace, with a 2.9 percent increase recorded in May. So have its exports, too. The latest data confirm the German economy as the healthiest core of the euro zone, with an accumulated trade surplus of €73.8 billion in that month, up from [...]
Clueless Angela Merkel releases €30 billion for Spain's banking bailout
how do i get back my ex girlfriend By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | Changing the goal posts… Again, Brussels rectified. The euro finance ministers Ecofin made this morning the decision of not waiting until 2013 to release at least part of the capital aid package. A third of the total sum of €100 billion [...]
Shortcomings of the euro will sooner than later emerge
MADRID | Have you noticed that since the Libor fraud has the dubious honour to receive full front page coverage, the euro zone troubles have been dumped into inside pages? No one raises doubts on the fragile agreement reached in the last Summit, thus providing some respite to the badly mauled Southern Europe countries. It would [...]
Barclays, Deutsche Bank play nasty in troubled Spain
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | German and British banks are trying to woo the economic elite of the Spanish society, “la crème de la crème” of wealthy Spaniards. Or, in plain English: the ones with the big bucks. The uncertainty over the Spanish future is making the depositors nervous, and banks from the UK and Germany are [...]
Where Spain's risk premium should be
MADRID | The cost excess the Spanish government pays for credit from the capital markets in comparison with Germany, which is considered the benchmark in confidence matters in the sovereign bond sector, has fallen since last week's euro summit. The main two reasons seem to be that the plan for financial aid for Spain to [...]
The EMU still needs fixing
MADRID | The Summit has just avoided the worst from happening. Super-Mario and an unexpectedly bold Mariano Rajoy achieved a coup d’état toppling Ms Merkel from her undisputed pedestal. Hollande’s support was vital in depriving her of her hitherto boundless power. Yet one has the impression we assisted to a rehearsed show meant to provide an excuse [...]
Euro stress-free area
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | After so many fruitless meetings, conversations and rounds nobody expected that the European leaders would be able to reach a more than reasonable agreement for Europe, that tough Germany would relax its position towards its Southern partners, and Spain and Italy would resist before the steam engine of the [...]
The resurgence of the euro periphery
LONDON | It is a raging war what today burns within the Madrid-Rome-Berlin triangle, and with the survival of not only the European common currency but the future of the United States of Europe at the epicentre of the negotiations. Painful obedience has evolved into a tense, dynamic partnership. The stiff stillness imposed by the [...]
