international monetary fund
July 5th, 2006
The biggest global housing boom in three decades may end not with a bang, but with an extended whimper that will keep the economy growing.Markets for dwellings in the United States, France, Spain, New Zealand and parts of China are slowing down as home-price inflation slows in response to higher ...
Continue reading World Housing Boom Cooling
June 18th, 2007
Javier Usua and Ruth Graneda never got out of the car when they visited Sanchinarro and Las Tablas, two of Madrid’s biggest new suburban developments. The concrete-block buildings and empty streets were all they needed to see. “We came to look at apartments but found ghost towns,” said Usua, a ...
Continue reading Ghost Towns Appear As Boom Ends
October 24th, 2007
Lending in Spain’s financial and corporate sectors is grinding to a virtual standstill amid a climate of suspicion about which bank could be the “Spanish Northern Rock”. “Everything has basically stopped because banks are too fearful to lend to each other,” one banker said. “Everyone wants to know who has been ...
Continue reading Bank Lending Limbo
April 14th, 2008
Now, 1 euro is worth 80p, an all-time high against the pound. Bad news for British holidaymakers – but are there more serious consequences of living next door to the world's strongest currency? Tens of millions of British people will experience their own credit crunch on holiday this year as the ...
Continue reading British Tourists Pay for Euro Strength
April 16th, 2008
Spanish builders are tempting home buyers with free cars, mortgage holidays and hard cash as they try to lift the gloom shrouding the housing sector. Some companies are also diving into the rental market. At the annual property fair in Madrid last week, the number of promoters was down by a ...
Continue reading Developers Lure Buyers with Deals
June 3rd, 2008
Spanish residents and property owners should have one less tax to worry about – wealth tax is being abolished. It was on 18th April 2008 that the Council of Ministers approved a measure to get rid of wealth tax in Spain from 1st January 2008. The measure has ...
Continue reading Spain Scraps Wealth Tax
November 21st, 2008
Spain's economy contracted for the first time since 1993 in the third quarter, official data showed on this week, and analysts were surprised by how fast a housing slump is sapping consumer spending. For a decade the euro zone's star, Spain could now turn into its underperformer as it faces a ...
Continue reading Spain Underperformer in Euro Zone
December 29th, 2008
Spain passed its 2009 budget despite fierce opposition to its growth and deficit forecasts that have become unrealistic as the euro zone's fourth largest economy barrels into recession. Spain's ruling Socialists allied with small nationalist parties to win an absolute majority of 178 lower house votes needed to overrule a Senate ...
Continue reading Spanish Assistance Assured Around April
January 16th, 2009
Spanish unemployment topped 3 million for the first time ever in December and the government said unemployment would worsen in 2009, as the global economic crisis continued to wreak havoc on the country's property-driven economy. The number of people out of work in Spain jumped by 139,694 people, the ninth straight ...
Continue reading Spanish Unemployment Exceeds 3 Million
January 21st, 2009
The Spanish government on Friday slashed its economic forecasts for 2009 from growth of 1.0 percent to a contraction of 1.6 percent due to the global financial crisis and warned of dark days ahead for Europe's fifth-largest economy. Unemployment, already the highest in the European Union, will hit 15.9 percent this ...
Continue reading 2009 Shrinking Spanish Economy
