Bankinter : Several positive data in China. While Retail Sales (Jan+Feb) improve to +3.5% year-on-year, as expected vs -1.8% previously, Industrial Production (Jan+Feb) improves to +2.4% year-on-year vs +2.6% esp. and +1.3% previously. Also, the Unemployment Rate (Feb) rebounds to 5.6% vs 5.3% esp. and 5.5% previously. Finally, the PBoC injected the largest amount of liquidity since December 2020 via a medium-term credit line. Specifically, it amounted to CNY 281...

The technicians of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday completed their annual review of the Spanish economy, known as ‘Article IV’, and concluded that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth will be “relatively weak” in the coming quarters. “Growth is expected to be relatively weak in the coming quarters due to weak external demand and deteriorating consumer confidence,” the IMF stressed in its conclusions on the country’s economic...

Fernando González Urbaneja | The Bank of Spain’s Annual Report, usually issued in May/June, is the canonical report for economic experts, the one used as a reference for all those who want to have an informed opinion. This does not mean that it is infallible, but it does mean that it is reliable and trustworthy. Some of the all-knowledgeable people who take up space on television this morning said that...

FEDEA (Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada) analyses existing information on the implementation and execution of investment projects and aid programmes included in the Recovery Plan (RP) and financed by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM). So far, programmes and projects representing about one third of the planned expenditure have been launched, but with significant differences between headings. Of the 24 billion of RRM funds budgeted for 2021, 20...

The number of registered workers in the Eurozone exceeded in the fourth quarter of 2021 the figure recorded in the same period of 2019, thus recovering for the first time the level of employment prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data published by Eurostat. According to the EU office, the number of employed people increased in the fourth quarter by 0.5% in the Eurozone and in the European Union...

Enrique Badía y Liberal | While we remain attentive to the incidence rate and the numbers of hospitalised and dead, answers to crucial questions in any crisis are scarce or in doubt: what is happening, how long will it last? It is easy to answer that we are contending with a pandemic. However, it is not clear that we know enough about the how and why of each response chosen...