Noticias

No eruptions on the horizon

GOOD times are rolling again in Iceland. In June it beat England in a football match. On The Economist’s “glass-ceiling index”, it is the world’s best country for working women. And the economy is purring. After a thumping crash in 2008-09, GDP is expected to grow by 5% this year, faster than any other rich economy. The ruling (conservative) Independence Party has been rewarded: it won 30% of the vote in the election in October, more than any other party. But some fret that Iceland’s economic stability is, again, built on molten lava.

The biggest worry is over its treatment of foreign creditors. When the crisis hit, the country slapped on capital controls, protecting the krona by preventing investors from pulling capital from the country. Recently the government has been loosening restrictions. Icelanders may soon no longer have to present airline tickets in order to buy foreign currency for their holidays.

One group of foreign investors, however, accuses Iceland of, in effect, defaulting on its debts. They own offshore, krona-denominated, assets worth…Continue reading

ON NOVEMBER 11th, Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant, posted nearly $18bn in sales for the day. This broke last year’s record for Singles’ Day, an anti-Valentine’s Day that has become a love affair with spending. The popularity of the company’s virtual credit-card, Huabei (roughly translating as “Just spend”), may have helped. Consumers who spend less than 1,000 yuan ($146) online a month spend 50% more once they get one, according to Ant Financial Services, an Alibaba affiliate. To older generations, taught to save, borrowing is shameful. But financial habits are changing: Chinese consumers are being encouraged to develop credit histories.

Last year, the government awarded eight companies consumer credit-rating licences. Their pilot programmes are an attempt to flesh out thin financial records and get people thinking about their credit scores. This is new for most Chinese, who do not use credit cards and have never had credit scores. As of 2014, the People’s Bank of China maintained credit histories for around 350m citizens—less than one-third of the adult population. In America 89% of adults have credit scores. Without a credit history,…Continue reading

FOR the moment, the policy priorities of the Trump administration-in-waiting are a basket of unknowables. Plans to scrap Obamacare or re-deregulate America’s financial sector, though dear to Republican hearts, are easier to champion on the campaign stump than to implement. A step away from globalism—Donald Trump’s most consistent campaign theme—could make for an awkward opening gambit given pockets of Republican resistance to overt protectionism. Tax cuts and infrastructure spending, on the other hand, look like an easy and unifying win for the new administration. And indeed, market moves since Mr Trump’s victory seem to imply an expectation of a Ronald Reaganesque turn in American fiscal policy; government-bond yields have risen, seemingly in expectation of bigger deficits, faster growth and higher inflation. Yet any resemblance that Mr Trump’s plans may bear to Reaganomics is as much a cause for concern as for optimism.

The president-elect’s tax proposals are easily the boldest since Reagan’s. Mr Trump’s plan would slash the highest marginal income-tax rates, cut rates of tax on corporate income and on capital…Continue reading

El presidente de Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, ha indicado que los suministradores son fundamentales para llevar a cabo el plan de inversiones de más de 24.000 millones previsto por la empresa hasta 2020. Leer

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El Ministerio Público reclama esa sanción adicional a la devolución de los 29,7 millones de euros defraudados por la subvenciones para residentes

El Ayuntamiento abre a raíz de las informaciones de EL PAÍS un expediente que podría acabar con una sanción, la rescisión del contrato o la inhabilitación de la empresa

La compañía Airbus ya ha suministrado otras 33 aeronaves a cinco países

Las primeras estimaciones señalan que contiene cerca de 20.000 millones de barriles que lo sitúan como el más grande de ese país

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