Spain: Two or Three Reasons to be Cheerful
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 – but at least it’s a move in the right direction.
Second, Despite the news that mortgage lending is down 34%, news of competitive 100% mortgages could be just what the market needs to catalyse Spanish property buying again.
One other piece of news which I’ll stick my neck out and interpret as ‘good’ is that the Spanish protests organised against raising the retirement age by two years have been poorly supported.
I have no particular feelings either way about the wisdom of this pension reform – but I do feel strongly that striking is the very worst thing for Spain’s fragile economy.
Yes, the politicians messed up. Yes, they should be held accountable. Yes, they should find workable solutions to revitalise Spain’s economy and reverse the spiralling unemployment rate. But striking won’t make those things happen – it will only delay them.
For their part, Spain’s politicians are playing ‘fast and loose’ with the media.
When speaking to international journalists and investors, they emphasise the austerity of the country’s economic plans – in an attempt to sooth investor nerves and cement Spain’s line of affordable international credit.
Meanwhile in Spain, these same politicians are emphasising how it’s ‘business as normal’ and that there will be no significant cuts in public spending and no erosion of benefits.
The upshot of this – since we live in an age of Google translate and the Internet – is that neither foreign investors, nor the Spanish people have any faith in anything the government says. They’re clearly ‘bending the truth’ at least 50% of the time, if not 100%.
Over on the Kyero blog, we’ve discovered a way of getting Google to send you property alerts – even when the web site you’re using doesn’t offer that functionality. We apologise for annoying you with our signup forms, and we ask whether translating property descriptions really makes sense?
If you have an opinion about these topics, please leave a comment and join in the conversation.
Martin Dell, Kyero.com
