FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGAL
www.euroweeklynews.com
16 - 22 January 2020
New Pensions Ministry NOW that he has taken power of ficially, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has already shown that he has a strong will by ap pointing the equivalent of three deputy Prime Ministers (of which Pablo Iglesias is one) and control ling all of the ministerial portfo lios. Iglesias has a number of low spending ministries under his wing and the next few months will see whether he plans to fight for a greater say in government policy. A brand new ministry is being cre ated, which covers Social Security, In
Credit: Casa de SM el Rey Twitter
By John Smith
NEW MINISTER: Escrivá, speaking at an economic forum.
Controlling property SAREB which was created to deal with the management of the toxic real estate properties following the Spanish banking crisis has been steadily disposing of assets and bad loans but still lost €878
million last year. It ran a public tender to find an additional company to manage a number of its rental properties and has revealed that Haya Real Estate, a subsidiary of Cerberus
has won a two-year renewable contract to manage 3,300 properties on its behalf. Of these, 1,800 are homes and the balance comprises commercial properties or garages.
clusion and Migration and this will be headed by José Luis Escrivá, currently president of the Independent Au thority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF). He has maintained a very indepen dent stance being first appointed un der the Partido Popular as it tried to introduce measures aimed at helping the economy recover and governing public accounts following the finan cial crisis of 10 years ago. He has also worked with the Mon etary Policy Division of the European Central Bank, the Bank for Interna tional Settlements, the Bank of Spain and BBVA so certainly looks like a po tential safe pair of hands. Previously Social Services came un der the Ministry of Labour but is now promoted to be a ministry in its own right which means that as part of a reshuffle the previous head Mag dalena Valerio will be replaced. This new ministry will have a par ticular role in the planning of pension reforms which AIReF argued were long overdue and it seems likely that retirement age will inevitably be in creased to bring it more in line with other European States.
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BUSINESS EXTRA High profit DESPITE the fact that it is the butt of media jokes, budget airline Ryanair seems to be doing something right as it now forecasts increased profits for its financial year of up to €1 billion, an increase of around 19 per cent.
Xmas cheer THE UK division of supermarket chain LIDL says it outperformed every rival in the four week run up to Christmas with sales up 11 per cent and footfall increasing accordingly. Aldi however says that it took £1 billion (€1.1 billion) in the same period.
Green fund SPANISH Banco Sabadell has launched a global equity fund Sabadell Economía Verde that will invest 75 per cent of its portfolio in companies related to the green economy including climate change, renewable energy, and water.