Business News & Financial News

Spanish economy 30th October 2026

Retail sales record their largest decline in nearly four years in September (-1.6%)

Retail trade sales recorded a year-on-year decrease of 1.6% in September, their largest drop in nearly four years—specifically since November 2022—according to data released this Thursday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). With this year-on-year drop, which widens the contraction experienced in August by 0.5 percentage points, retail sales have now logged three consecutive months of negative rates. Within the retail sector, food product sales fell by 0.3%, while sales…

In Europe 30th October 2026

ECB will attempt to agree on a new president before year-end, with Pablo Hernández de Cos and Klaas Knot best positioned

Yesterday, in line with expectations, the ECB kept key interest rates unchanged, with the deposit facility rate at 2.5% following the June and September hikes. Furthermore, the statement noted that the scale and duration of the energy shock (crude oil, and especially gas and distillates), along with its indirect and second-round effects (which are currently not evident, given stable wage growth), will likely push inflation higher and weigh on economic…

Brazil elections: Whoever wins, debt reigns

In the World 26th October 2026

Lula wins in Brazil with 51.8% of the vote

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leader of the Workers’ Party and acting President of Brazil, re-elected his presidency yesterday, October 25, after securing more than 64.2 million votes in the second round of the presidential election—51.8% of the votes cast—compared to the 59.8 million votes obtained by his opponent, the leader of the Liberal Party, Flávio Nantes Bolsonaro. Polls pointed to a very tight result and almost a technical tie….

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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