Tag: Spain

In the Picture: Greek exit?

May 17, 2012 6:01 pm by Esther Bintliff
REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

Today we’re looking at Greece. Yup, again. But over the last week, the possibility that the Mediterranean country of 11 million people might actually leave the eurozone – a scenario long considered taboo – has become increasingly plausible. European policymakers and central bankers have gone from repeated assurances that a ‘Grexit’ would never, EVER happen, to a gradual admission that, yes, it’s possible. And if that’s the case, then the threat of contagion to the larger eurozone economies of Spain and Italy – and thus the broader single currency project – is magnified. Much will rest on the outcome of fresh elections in Greece on June 17. In the meantime:

Continue reading: “In the Picture: Greek exit?”

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Europe, Greece, In The Picture |

In the Picture: Roots of the Spanish crisis

May 1, 2012 1:35 pm by Esther Bintliff

Luisa Pinales, who could no longer make mortgage payments after her business closed in 2007, sweeps her apartment in Madrid on March 5, 2012. She was evicted on April 27. The graffiti reads "Stop eviction". REUTERS/Juan Medina

Last week it emerged that almost one in four Spaniards is unemployed.  For young people, the situation is worse – the jobless rate among under 25-year-olds has reached an eye-watering 52 per cent. As incomes have fallen, many householders find it more difficult to keep up with their mortgage payments; eviction notices – like the one received in January by Luisa Pinales, pictured above – have been served. Meanwhile, the centre-right government of Mariano Rajoy is hewing desperately to a programme of austerity, in the hopes of meeting an EU-imposed target of reducing Spain’s budget deficit to 3 per cent of gross domestic product in 2013. To get a sense of how difficult that will be, consider that in 2011, Spain’s budget deficit was 8.5 per cent of GDP. Investors in the sovereign debt markets can sense the scale of the challenge, and have demanded a higher premium for lending to the beleaguered government.

Continue reading: “In the Picture: Roots of the Spanish crisis”

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Europe, In The Picture |

In the picture: a short history of nationalisations

April 17, 2012 6:50 pm by FT

Cristina Fernández holds a sample of the first petroleum extraction in Argentina as she makes the YPF announcement (Getty)

On Monday Cristina Fernández, Argentina’s president, announced the renationalisation of the oil company YPF, ousting the Spanish group Repsol as majority owner and prompting a furious response from Madrid. With Spain and the European Union pondering how best to respond, we cast an eye back at ten of the most momentous nationalisations of resource/commodity institutions. (We are omitting the across-the-board, everything-must-go nationalisations of Russia and China after their respective Communist revolutions, for reasons of space).

Continue reading: “In the picture: a short history of nationalisations”

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in In The Picture, Latin America |

Eurozone crisis: Live coverage

October 3, 2011 9:54 am by FT

Welcome to our continuing coverage of the eurozone crisis. All times are London time. Curated by Esther Bintliff and John Aglionby on the world news desk in London, with contributions from FT correspondents around the world. This post should update automatically every few minutes, although it may take longer on mobile devices.

01.11: As we close the blog this evening, here are some highlights from the latest FT story written after the close of the meeting:

  • Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who heads the group of eurozone finance ministers, said officials remained steadfast in preventing a Greek default and signalled a new €109bn bail-out for Greece.
  • A deal was reached to accommodate Finland’s demand that it get Greek collateral in exchange for participating in the new bail-out.
  • For the first time, eurozone finance ministers discussed increasing the firepower of the €440bn bail-out fund.

Continue reading: “Eurozone crisis: Live coverage”

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Europe, Financial crisis |

Briefing: The ECB’s bond-buying programme

August 8, 2011 5:01 pm by FT

James Wilson, in our Frankfurt office, has compiled a guide to the European Central Bank’s bond-buying programme as policymakers struggle to contain the contagion in eurozone debt markets.

What is the ECB doing?

The ECB has reopened what had become a dormant programme of buying the debt of various eurozone countries in the secondary market. It’s a fire-fighting measure to try to calm markets. Having bought Greek, Irish and Portuguese bonds, they are for the first time this week now buying Italian and Spanish debt.

Continue reading: “Briefing: The ECB’s bond-buying programme”

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Europe |

The World

with Gideon Rachman

About this blog About Gideon Blog guide
Gideon Rachman and his FT colleagues debate international affairs. Read more on the authors.

Gideon became chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times in July 2006. He joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included spells as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington and Bangkok. He also edited The Economist’s business and Asia sections.

His particular interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation
To comment, please register for free with FT.com and read our policy on submitting comments.

All posts are published in UK time.

Contact gideon.rachman@ft.com about The World blog.

See the full list of FT blogs.

FT World News page

Read FT world news coverage from our network of international correspondents.

The FT’s Brussels blog

For views and opinions on the European Union from Peter Spiegel, Joshua Chaffin, Alex Barker and Stanley Pignal, follow the FT's Brussels blog here.

The blog day by day

« AprMay 2012
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031