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We analyse the post-pandemic recovery of tourism from one of the Portuguese economy’s star source markets: the US.

We analyse the changes that have occurred in the flow of departures from the Spanish labour market in recent years, and the effect of the entry into force of the latest labour reform.

The ageing of the population will have a major impact on the public finances of advanced economies. The mechanism is well known: the ageing of the population and the consequent increase in dependency ratios can reduce tax revenues and increase public spending substantially. The main message of this article is that demographics will exert intense upward pressure on the public finances in Spain and Europe.

The generation gap is widening in both income and wealth, according to the latest Spanish Survey of Household Finances published by the Bank of Spain: between 2001 and 2021, the median income of households with a head of the household aged under 35 fell by 19.8%, while in the case of those over 74 years of age it rose by 40.5%; and between 2002 and 2022 the total net wealth of households with a head under the age of 35 fell by 72.7%, while that of households headed by someone over the age of 74 rose by 98.7%.

We are now almost half way through the year and it is time to take stock in order to update a set of economic scenarios in which the divergence in the pattern of inflation between the United States and Europe has been key to explaining the adjustment of interest rate forecasts.

This article confirms, through the use of anonymised high-frequency internal data, how the interest rate hikes and cuts between 2022 and 2025 have affected Spaniards’ consumption. The results show that the monetary policy of the last cycle has clearly influenced household consumption in Spain, albeit with moderate intensity, and that interest rate cuts have had a tangible impact in boosting spending among households with variable-rate mortgages.

With inflation rates above 8% in the last six months, the Fed has embarked on an accelerated cycle of interest rate hikes. Prices began to rise in early 2021, and while for a few months most analysts were anticipating a transitory rebound as a result of the reopening of the economy in the wake of the pandemic, the fact is that the persistent rise in prices caught us all by surprise. In this Focus we analyse the pattern in the various inflation measures and their short-term outlook.

We delve into the REPowerEU plan, approved in May by the European Commission, and its measures to accelerate the energy transition envisaged in the Green Deal and the Fit for 55 package.

The international economy showed remarkable resilience in 2024 and the available data suggest that world GDP may have grown slightly above 3%. The tailwinds that supported economic activity will likely continue to blow in 2025, albeit with less strength and in the face of significant challenges.

The NGEU funds and the national investment programmes in Germany and France are the result of a long process of changes in the big economic blocs, accelerated by COVID and the war in Ukraine. These efforts seek to redefine and adapt production models to the energy transition and digitalisation in a context of uncertainty and new geopolitical dynamics.

The indicators that have been published during the opening months of the year paint a picture of a buoyant Spanish economy in Q1 2025, albeit with a slightly less vigorous growth rate than in the previous quarter.

One of the factors that could limit the speed of the economic recovery in Spain is the mismatch that is beginning to become apparent in the labour market. New unfilled job offers have been growing significantly since late 2020, and in Q2 2021 there were around 120,000, the highest figure in the last decade.

The global economy continues to grow at different speeds in Q2. In the US, the labour market is beginning to show signs of moderation while inflation continues its slow downward trickle; Germany’s weakness conditions the euro area as a whole, and China’s economy faces a modest outlook for Q3.

Between the end of September and the end of February, the US dollar depreciated by 6% in effective nominal terms and by 10% against the euro, trading at close to 1.07, a level not seen for almost a year. We explore what lies behind this change of trend and whether it is likely to continue.

We analyse the stress in the labour market of the largest economy in the world: are there more companies wanting to hire or fewer workers? Most importantly, how can job supply and demand be rebalanced?

In the midst of the low season for much of the sector, the figures published month by month continue to confirm strong demand despite the challenging economic environment that is affecting the global economy, particularly the European one. Will this dynamic continue in the coming months?

The US interest rates have risen steadily and significantly, galvanised by the Federal Reserve’s rapid and aggressive monetary tightening policies. However, this does not necessarily mean that US bonds are more attractive than their European counterparts. A key factor in the comparison is the exchange rate.