Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, released Thursday data on hourly labour costs in the euro zone and in the EU. In both instances, the records indicate a very small increase but enough to strengthen the argument of those governments introducing wide-reach labour market reforms. Hourly labour costs in the euro area rose [...]

MADRID | Cesuras and Oza agreed this week the first merger between towns in Spain. The villages will become one local authority in a decision that was pushed by the need of public spending rationalisation, and that is likely to trigger a municipal restructuring in the region of Galicia. In fact, the president of Galicia’s [...]

By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | The new deficit targets established by Brussels left unmoved the Spanish Treasury issuance performance. It has placed €3,009.29 million in bonds and debentures at lower interests, few days after the Spanish government set up a higher deficit target for 201 and after Brussels mended it to a final 5.3% [...]

Long term refinancing operation 2 or liquidity injections into Spanish credit entities via the European Central Bank rose in February to €152.432 billion from €133.177 in January. But, contrary to what most European banks seem to be doing, that is, parking capital in the central bank’s deposit facility, Spain’s banks prefer to take advantage of [...]

By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | Even though the Spanish risk premium on Wednesday morning dropped to 328 basis points, financial analysts in Madrid are split up about its evolution. 50% of the analysts consulted by Consenso consider reasonable a fall below 300bp before the end of 2012. Most of them clarify that the risk premium [...]