Yesterday's was a volatile session in the market, driven again by geopolitical developments the Middle East. It started with a risk-off tone, as Iran reportedly suspended its contact with the US in response to the Israelian attacks to Lebanon; however, later news reporting that Hezbollah was ready to agree to a ceasefire switched the market sentiment in late session.
Search at CaixaBank Research
Search results
3078 results found for tourism report
Dossier
The current international economic environment and the current economic environment in Spain
In the first issue of 2025, we stop to take a snapshot of foreign demand for housing, international business tourism and the savings of Spanish households according to their demographic and income profile. We continue to analyse the European economy’s exposure to US tariff hikes, this time from the perspective of value chains, and we also assess the challenges for European fiscal policy following the entry into force of the new economic governance framework.
The European Parliament elections this June were held at a key moment for the European construction process, taking into account the economic, political and social challenges that our continent must address in the coming years. Many of these challenges are discussed in the Dossier of this Monthly Report, ranging from the loss of competitiveness in a world that is undergoing a reconfiguration of value chains and relationships between economic blocs, to the revitalisation of productivity and technological development, to the need to push ahead with the capital markets union.
Activity in Spain’s agrifood sector is increasing at a faster rate than across the economy as a whole and the outlook for the 2024-2025 campaign is encouraging. Exports are holding up well in the adverse environment of recent years and the food price rally has begun to slow, although the cumulative increase since 2019 remains significant.
Despite COVID-19, house prices in most advanced economies rebounded in 2020, largely thanks to the expansionary fiscal and monetary policies introduced to revive economic activity.
In the May issue of the Monthly Report, we include a special dossier to analyse the present and future of the new AI economy, addressing its macroeconomic, business, financial and geopolitical implications. We begin with an overview of the global deployment of AI from a supply-side perspective, analysing the value chain, the role of infrastructure, energy and semiconductor bottlenecks, and the position of different powers in this technological race. We then examine how AI could drive productivity growth, as well as what we know – and do not know – about its effects on employment, emphasising that the leap from microeconomic improvements to macro impacts will be gradual and uneven across countries and sectors. In Spain, AI adoption by firms is advancing rapidly, but remains limited and uneven, posing significant challenges for productivity and for the cohesion of the economy’s productive base. We also address AI governance strategies in the US, China and the EU, and the balances between innovation, regulation and adoption that will shape AI geopolitics in the coming years. Finally, we cover AI in financial markets, the valuations of big tech firms and the risks associated with high concentration and the growing investment needs in infrastructure.
Climate change represents a key challenge for the real estate sector and for the entire Spanish economy. In this article, we analyse the risks associated with extreme weather events and the transition risks which the sector must address, as well as the role of public policies.
Activity in the real estate market is recovering from its extraordinary slump between March and June. House sales and new building permits have regained much of the ground lost in Q3 2020, a trend we expect to consolidate in 2021. House prices, whose trend is still weak but without any extreme corrections, are expected to follow a similar trend in the coming quarters, ending 2021 with a decline of around 2%.
The arrival of the pandemic was a severe blow to a sector that was already going through a delicate situation due to trade tensions and disruptions in the automotive industry at a European level. The fall in manufacturing activity in Q2 2020 was sharper than the decline in the economy as a whole, although its subsequent recovery was more vigorous. Some sectors, such as textiles, footwear and beverages and even automobiles, were hit hard and are recovering more slowly, while other sectors, such as pharmaceuticals and food, were hardly affected at all. The lifting of restrictions, progress made with vaccinations and reduction in uncertainty will help to revive consumption and flows of international tourists, all of which are vital to our economy, and this in turn will support manufacturing.
In the course of 2021 we have seen that, in the wake of the pandemic, a misalignment has emerged in the real estate sector between a demand that has recovered very quickly and a supply that is more dependent on structural factors and therefore continues to lag behind. As a result of this misalignment, house prices have started an upward trend which may continue to some extent in the coming quarters as a result of higher production costs in the sector and problems with the supply of certain raw materials. Nevertheless, in the medium term, as new supply enters the market and tensions in global supply chains ease, prices should return to a growth rate that is more in line with the trend in household income.
Investors ended the week with a mixed session as the US government shutdown, which prevented the release of the employment report, clouded sentiment. Sovereign yields edged lower in the euro area and stocks mostly advanced, while US Treasury yields ended higher, and equities were mostly flat weighed down by the underperformance of tech stocks.
Markets had a mixed session. US stocks advanced ahead of Nvidia's earnings report, while most euro area indices retreated. US Treasury yields rose after the BLS announced it will not publish the October and November jobs data before the Fed's next meeting, leading markets to reduce expectations of a rate cut in December to 30%. Euro area sovereign yields were flat.
On Friday, the Japanese yen strengthened sharply after the Bank of Japan left its policy rate at 0.75% and signaled a hawkish stance. Speculation around potential currency intervention intensified after New York Fed officials reportedly sought information on the yen’s exchange rate, and Prime Minister Takaichi warned of action against “abnormal” market moves.
Investors traded cautiously ahead of today’s Fed meeting. Yesterday’s JOLTS report showed US job openings increased in October, indicating that the labor market isn't weakening abruptly and raising the risk that the Fed may strike a hawkish tone despite the widely expected rate cut later today. In response, Treasury yields edged higher and the dollar strengthened.
The week began with a risk-off session as investors awaited several US tech mega-cap earnings reports amid concerns about high valuations in the sector. Stocks sold off globally, while sovereign yields edged lower and the dollar strengthened, as President Trump's decision to exempt a large list of agricultural products from reciprocal tariffs barely impacted the market.
The week began on a cautious note, with US Treasury yields remaining flat, equities posting modest gains, and the US dollar edging lower amid reports that Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been threatened with a criminal indictment related to the costs of a building renovation, which he described as a pretext by President Trump to exert influence over monetary policy.
Investors started the week trading cautiously, taking on board weak sentiment data, hawkish commentary by some ECB officials and news reporting that Russia is due to reduce gas supplies to Europe.
During yesterday's session, investors continued to digest the implications of the US Supreme Court's ruling to strike down US emergency tariffs. While the global tariff stands at 10%, the Trump administration is reportedly working to increase it to 15%. Against this backdrop, government bond yields closed flat on both sides of the Atlantic, in a day of choppy trading.