The figures issued by the Bank of Spain have confirmed what we could already see with the naked eye; namely that Spaniards are losing their fear of the future and spending again. After several years of austerity, the consumers in Spain have gradually loosened their purse strings over the past year. And to such an extent that consumer spending rose 3.1% in 2015, almost tripling the 1.2% registered a year earlier.
Hebah Fisher | In the 1970s, the population of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stood at 230,000. It is now 9.3 million with an economy that grew 230-fold, ranking presently as the 28th wealthiest nation in the world.
BARCLAYS | There is growing concern about the strength of the business cycle in Europe and globally. China continues to surprise to the downside, while markets are beginning to assign a meaningful probability of a US recession later this year. Markets are now wondering whether Europe’s growth outlook will remain unscathed
Iberdrola, Spain’s biggest electricity company, has completed the merger with the US firm UIL and the new group Avantgrid is now trading on the NYSE.
Shares in Iberdrola USA began trading yesterday at 38,75€/share (310 million shares), registering a fall over the day of 6.7% to 36,12€/share in an overall weak session.
With less than 50 days to go to the general elections, which perhaps may be more decisive than on other occasions, and the Catalan Parliament voting on the start of the secession from Spain, neither economic nor political confidence is faltering.
Athens may need no further than €10 billion to recapitalise its main financial institutions. These are the funds in the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund to cover the sector’s requirements. Looks like in Brussels there is a broader consensus that the figures revealed by the ECB are “encouraging”.
Yang Gang via Caixin | China also has second-most household wealth after the United States, according to an annual report by researchers at Credit Suisse Group, a leading global financial services company.
Lehman Brothers’ collapse became a milestone representing the official start of the ongoing long economic crisis. Subprime mortgages had failed years before, then afterwards the crisis fuelled different situations such as the European bail-ins. Today marks seven years after the event. The risk from “too big to fail entities” remains.