From typicallyspanish.com
Spain Business Brief - Friday October 10 2008
By h.b.
Oct 10, 2008 - 1:36 PM
The Spanish stock market has joined the falls being seen across Europe today, some falling by more than 8%, showing that the emergency measures carried out by Governments across the world have done nothing to rebuild confidence.
The G7 leaders are holding an emergency meeting in Washington to see what can be done.
In Spain the IBEX 35 lost 7.4% on opening and later recovered to show falls of 6% and remains below the psychological barrier of 10,000 points and is even approaching 9,000. It’s the largest daily fall in the history of the index. The largest banks, BBVA and Santander showed the largest falls each down by close to 9%.
There was some good news today. The Euribor interest rate, used to set mortgages, finally reacted to the fall in the bank base rates and is now below 5.5% after falling by 0.2%. It’s hoped the fall will result in an increase in confidence in the interbank market.
Also down today, oil, down to its lowest level for a year at 78$. The price has fallen 47% since the record highs on July 11 as demand has fallen given the financial crisis.
All this has resulted in Spanish families saving more money. The latest rate for home savers is 14% of their disposable income for the second quarter of the year. That means 2.7% more saved than at this time last year.
The Partido Popular has meanwhile voiced serious concerns about the Spanish Government support fund for banks and savings banks. Economics spokesman for the party, Cristóbal Montoro, said that his party supported the personal savings guarantee being increased to 100,000 €, but after meeting with Pedro Solbes, said there were differences over the bank fund. The PP considers that Parliament should also control the fund, and the Government had accepted the creation of a parliamentary commission to control the destination of the new liquidity, to ensure that the money found its way to families and businesses.
Real estate company Metrovacesa has failed to meet its undertakings to the National Council for Market Values to increase its capital this week. It’s not known what action, if any will come in return from the regulatory body.