euro zone
August 15th, 2011
The price war among mobile operators has reduced the pace of price increases in July by one-tenth, reported El Pais. According to results published on Friday by the National Statistics Institute, lower phone rates, which are on average 1.2% cheaper than a year ago and, to a lesser extent, household ...
Continue reading Mobile Price War Reduces Inflation in July
August 11th, 2011
In a report entitled "New signs of weakness casts further doubt on prospects for growth in the euro zone", the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's emphasised that foreign trade is another major source of concern that could thwart growth prospects in some countries. However, they stressed that trends in the ...
Continue reading Spanish Exports Encouraging for the Economy
August 9th, 2011
The leaders of the euro zone central banks agreed on Sunday to intervene decisively in the markets in response to the escalating crisis, sparked off by debt problems in the USA. The European Central Bank (ECB) has already moved into action and is planning to buy Italian and Spanish debt, ...
Continue reading ECB Purchases Debt from Spain and Italy
August 3rd, 2011
The Spanish economy is "not clear" says the International Monetary Fund (IMF), so they should not abandon their reform drives because, despite the "ambitious" plans for ongoing fiscal consolidation, there are still many accumulated structural imbalances, which make reforms and additional adjustment measures necessary in order to complete the financial ...
Continue reading Spanish Economy: A “Modest” Recovery but “not clear” of Danger
July 22nd, 2011
Heads of State and Government of the euro zone countries held an emergency summit yesterday, to try to reach an agreement on the second rescue of Greece, with the aim of curbing the spread of the debt crisis in Spain and Italy. The preliminary agreement reached yesterday morning after seven hours ...
Continue reading Merkel and Sarkozy Pave the Way for a Deal on Greece
July 7th, 2011
German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, defended before the German Constitutional Court on Tuesday, the legality of the euro rescue fund and the European Union and International Monetary Fund’s aid program for Greece, saying "Germany does not take any decision on measures to stabilise the euro zone without the approval of ...
Continue reading Germany Defends Legality of the Euro Rescue Fund
June 28th, 2011
German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the agreement reached by European leaders to release the new emergency aid for Greece, provided that the Greek parliament approves this week, the adjustment and privatization plan agreed with the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying it is "important for the stabilisation of ...
Continue reading Agreement on Greece Important for the Euro, Says Merkel
June 22nd, 2011
Echoes of the Spanish protesters reached the euro zone summit of finance ministers. In the midst of negotiations over how to avoid the bankruptcy of Greece, both the branch commissioner, Olli Rehn, and chairman of the Euro group, Jean-Claude Juncker, vowed not to give in to protests and to speed ...
Continue reading Euro Zone Ministers Under Fire Over Social Cuts
June 20th, 2011
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has disqualified Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer from running for the post of Managing Director of the Fund, due to his advanced age. As reported in Europa Press, referring to 67 year old Stanley Fischer, the Executive Board outlined the IMF ...
Continue reading IMF Narrows Candidate List for Post of MD
June 3rd, 2011
The Euribor, the main mortgage rate indicator in Spain, ended May at 2.147%, its highest rate since January 2009 (2.622%). Looking ahead, if the forecasts are correct, the situation looks set to worsen over the year. Specifically, for a mortgage of 150,000 euros over 25 years and a Euribor spread of ...
Continue reading Euribor Still Putting the Squeeze on Home Owners
May 30th, 2011
The future president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Italy's Mario Draghi, said on Friday that euro zone countries should expect, in the long term, further rises in interest rates and rising inflationary pressures. In an economic conference in Berlin organised by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Draghi warned ...
Continue reading Draghi Warns Further Rates Increases Likely
May 20th, 2011
Euro zone finance ministers have proposed that Italian Central Bank President, Mario Draghi, replace Jean-Claude Trichet as President of the European Central Bank (ECB), reported Euro Group Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker. Juncker said that "Mario Draghi will be the new president of the ECB" and that the Italian banker has "an excellent ...
Continue reading Italian Draghi Chosen as New Head of the ECB
May 17th, 2011
In their latest report the International Monetary Fund (IMF) discusses how the deterioration of the labour market in Europe has varied widely from one country to another during the last crisis. For example, where in northern European countries unemployment has scarcely increased and the time-reduction schemes have worked, in other ...
Continue reading IMF Puts Spain in Same Boat as Greece, Ireland and Portugal
May 16th, 2011
The Spanish economy grew 0.3% between January and March, according to the latest report published by the National Statistics Institute. This is one-tenth more than announced by the Bank of Spain last week and another notch higher than the growth registered for the last quarter of 2010. The annual rate increase ...
Continue reading Spain’s GDP First Quarter Growth Beats Forecast
May 6th, 2011
The credit rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has said it will take several years to get back to a full balance between supply and demand in the Spanish housing market, but estimates that property prices will not fall dramatically in the next 12 or 18 months and sales will ...
Continue reading S&P Predicts Sales Will Rise for Spanish Property
