Archives for March 2010
March 1st, 2010
Thin turnouts for union protests against an unpopular pension reform may ease pressure on the Spanish government as it seeks to calm markets with austerity measures while avoiding social conflict. A total of only a few tens of thousands of protesters showed up for marches in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia on ...
Continue reading Spanish Pension Reform Protest Lacks Support
March 2nd, 2010
New mortgage lending in Spain is still very depressed, say the latest numbers from the National Institute of Statistics (INE). These figures are one of the few reliable housing market statistics we have, so it’s always worthwhile paying attention to what they have to say. According to the latest figures, for ...
Continue reading New Mortgages Down 34% in Spain
March 3rd, 2010
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's warned Spain Friday that its weak economic growth prospects could undermine its plan to rein in its budget deficit, making a debt downgrade even more likely. Though short of the levels being posted in Greece, investors are increasingly worried about Spain's budget deficit - and ...
Continue reading Spain gets another warning from S&P
March 2nd, 2010
There were two chinks of light permeating the same old economic gloom in this week's Spanish property news. First, even though Spain is still officially in recession, consumption in Spanish households increased for the first time in two years. This is still a far cry from a booming economy - ...
Continue reading Spain: Two or Three Reasons to be Cheerful
March 3rd, 2010
Upward revision to fourth quarter economic data does sterling no favours. Germany and France consider a bailout for Greece but there are no details yet. A two-day honeymoon took sterling from €1.1350 to almost €1.1450 before it set off south. Thursday and Friday were a one-way street that took it down ...
Continue reading Another week of Punishment for Sterling
March 4th, 2010
The Ministry of Development has just released some statistics that help illustrate the severity of Spain’s construction boom and bust. What is worse, there is no quick solution as much of the trouble is stored up in a new homes glut that will take years for the market to digest. The ...
Continue reading Spanish Property Boom & Bust
March 5th, 2010
The idea that Spain could become a target of the world’s markets, an economic basket case weighing down the euro, is a preposterous notion, but not an unthinkable one. It’s preposterous in the sense that this is a great, energetic, creative and competent nation that in about 25 years shed a ...
Continue reading Spanish Economy on the Edge
March 8th, 2010
There was a small uptick in Spanish housing sales during the fourth quarter of last year, according to data released today by the Ministry of Housing. Small, maybe, but enough for the Government to get excited about. “The transactions in the fourth quarter represent a rise of 4.1% with respect ...
Continue reading Spanish Property Market Grew Q4 2009
March 9th, 2010
Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across Spain last night in the biggest test of the country’s Socialist Government, which is under pressure. With a general strike threatened in the summer, the two biggest Spanish unions staged protests in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Alicante. The Union General de Trabajadores ...
Continue reading Protests Against Spain's Pension Reforms
March 9th, 2010
German magazine Bild (equivalent to The Sun in the UK) has ruffled Greek diplomatic feathers this week. In an open letter to the Greek PM during his trip to Germany, Bild pointed out some of the differences between the two countries: "Here, people work until they are 67 and there ...
Continue reading We're Past the Bottom of the Spanish Property Market
