By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | Analysts are busy collecting evidence for a huge recession. The 70% drop in the Baltic Dry Index, ranging now below the lowest level hit in 2009, has been hailed as the proof doomsday is looming. It seems that only bad news are taken on board, others being hastily dismissed as rubbish. Are prospects so bleak? Well, we are far from expecting a favourable…
LONDON | For all the sovereign chin-ups the British prime minister David Cameron draws in every occasion he finds himself summoned to Brussels and Sarkozy’s financial transaction tax is mentioned, the savings gained in the name of the City of London would amount to just €8 billion. Mr Cameron and his euro sceptic troops, barricaded behind a loud sector of the British society too prone to vent their frustration over…
MADRID | As reported by the daily newspaper Expansión in Tuesday’s edition, the reactivation of the property tax will be added to the increase of the personal income tax in Catalonia and in the autonomous region of Asturias creating a joint effect of more than 60%. Experts warn that these regions are susceptible to relocation and capital flight. The increase in personal income tax has placed Spain among the countries…
The EU is not closing the persistent gap with global innovation leaders US, Japan and South Korea. The European Commission on Tuesday published the results of its Innovation Union Scoreboard, which includes innovation indicators and trend analyses for the EU 27 Member States, as well as for Croatia, Iceland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey, and also compares a more reduced set of indicators between the…
Is Eurofound’s a contrarian view? While youth unemployment rampantly increases throughout the European Monetary Union, Eurofound on Wednesday will be telling a different story: the labour market shortfall caused by the decline in Europe’s population and workforce will not be offset by growing immigration levels nor by higher fertility and productivity rates, delegates will be told at the Opening Conference of the 2012 European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | After some weeks of good tone in the European stock markets, they suffered the consequences on Monday of the massive rating cut by S&P last weekend. The Ibex35 woke up today with shares drowning in red, except for Ebro Foods and Gas Natural, and is being dominated by volatility for the rest of the day.However, it is the rating agencies’s credibility which is being called…
LONDON | Electronic Payment Exchange (EPX) is strengthening its European operation by becoming a direct merchant acquirer in the European Union with initial movement into the United Kingdom. EPX will begin offering its payment services directly to EU merchants starting in the first quarter of 2012. EPX, a full-service payment processor providing combined tokenization and end-to-end encryption payment solutions to multi-national merchants, has provided payment processing services in the EU region for merchants…