Business News & Financial News

Spanish economy 31st August 2026

Spain: Retail sales drop for the first time since 2022

The National Statistics Institute (INE) reported that retail sales in Spain fell by 0.9% in July compared to June, a month in which they had rebounded by 0.3%. By distribution channel, e-commerce sales experienced the sharpest decline during the month (-2.5%). Excluding gas station sales, which dropped 4.4% in July, retail sales decreased by 0.6% month-on-month. By product category, food sales declined by 0.7%, while non-food products fell by 0.6%….

Shorts and shares on credit, a problem of information

European economy 31st August 2026

Share buybacks reach a new record in Europe ($17 billion in August and $170 billion year-to-date), keeping stock markets at record highs

According to analysis by Morgan Stanley, share buybacks in Europe reached approximately $17 billion in August, making it the highest August on record (+14% year-on-year). Year-to-date cumulative buybacks in Europe have now risen to ~$170 billion, an all-time high and 12% above the previous record. Measured in U.S. dollars, the largest programs include: Shell: program exceeding $7 billionNovartis: over $6 billionBP: over $3.5 billionUBS, TotalEnergies, and SAP: over $3 billion…

World economy 20th August 2026

Tension in US debt: Treasury announces it will double bond buybacks and manages to lower long-term yields

The US Department of the Treasury announced yesterday that it will more than double the volume of its public debt buybacks, a move that triggered a sharp drop in bond yields at a time of high market tension. The 30-year yield, which was nearing 5.34%, fell to 5.20%. The 10-year bond yield also dropped by 10 basis points, from 4.75% to 4.65%, driven in large part by the closing of…

rosa garcia consejera caixabank acerinox ence

“Many companies complicate CSRD implementation more than necessary”

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…

“We are one of Europe’s leading R&D investors: €1.45 billion last year”

“We need to approach negotiations with the U.S. on terms that are completely different from those currently being proposed”

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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