The PP defames, the economy is doing well

Good morning!

How are you doing on the electoral campaign? We are already tired and it has only just begun. Tired of manipulations, of misinformation and that, once again, the debate does not focus on people’s usual problems but on controversies built in political communication laboratories.

The right has always tried to impose the axiom that it manages better, but with the good progress of the economy -despite the pandemic, the war and inflation- the leaders of the PP have had to once again use terrorism as an electoral weapon .

This Wednesday, the Housing law has been definitively approved in the Senate. You can consult the keys of this standard here. During the five hours of the debate, more was heard about ETA or the ‘only yes is yes’ law than about the norm itself, except for the PP and the ultra-right to ensure that it will encourage squatting. The greatest indignity has come from the PP senator, Pedro Rollán, who has gone so far as to say that “the foundations of the housing law” are raised on “the ashes of the Hipercor attack”, one of the most brutal of the terrorist group.

This absolute nonsense is simply due to the fact that the economy is doing reasonably well and the PP is incapable of making a normal opposition. It is not that we say so, both the Bank of Spain and the European Commission have raised growth forecasts for our country. The GDP grew by 0.5% in the first quarter, when tourism is less strong, thanks to the strength of exports and investment, so the prospects are good.

Speaking of selling abroad…

The graphic

Spain compensated with a 23% growth in exports to Turkey for the 1,500 million euros that it stopped selling to Russia and China in 2022. In theory, due to the sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine: exports to the country it presides over Vladimir Putin sank almost 42% last year, compared to 2021. According to the European Commission, since February 2022 the EU has banned goods exported to Russia for more than 43.9 billion euros and imported goods for 91.2 billion euros. But made the Law, made the cheat: our country exported almost 1,300 million more to Turkey and also increased its turnover with Georgia, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates and Armenia. “These are countries that continue to trade freely with Russia. Therefore, there are strong presumptions that the goods purchased by these countries from the European Union are then re-exported by them to the country that Putin presides over,” explains Eric Dor, director of economic studies at the IESEG School of Management. Here you can read this report.

The Data

It has been the increase in food prices during the month of April. Although it is a brutal rise, it has a positive side: they have grown 3.6 points less than the previous month. Headline inflation rose to 4.1% in April due to the smaller drop in fuel, gas or electricity, compared to the same month in 2022. Thus, the total CPI rises again in its year-on-year calculation (8 decimals from 3.3% ) after the ‘step’ effect of March. Core inflation, which excludes energy and fresh food (fruit, vegetables…) due to their greater volatility, moderated in April to 6.6% precisely because of the slowdown in the rise in food prices, one point from the historical ceiling of 7.6% in February. Here you have all the data and the explanation of the evolution of prices

Once a reasonable wage agreement has been reached between employers and unions, which will not push prices, it is the turn of business profits. Even the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, has called for an agreement on the margin of companies to reduce “the risk of an inflation spiral.” You only have to see the airline flight rates to understand that some sectors and companies are favoring this spiral.

Despite the good business environment, Vodafone is not raising its head in Spain. It has been the market where the income of the British operator has fallen the most during the last year. Service billing plummeted 5.4%. Vodafone blames it on “continued price competition” in the higher-value sector and a loss in the customer base. Spain has gone from representing 11% of the group’s income to 9%. The parent company has announced a “strategic review” of the Spanish subsidiary: a plan to adjust and simplify the structure in which the possible sale of its activity in Spain is contemplated. An earthquake in the sector when the merger between Orange and MásMóvil has to be completed. In this report we tell you about the consequences of Vodafone Spain’s fall from grace.

Entrepreneur

Others whose existence is complicated is Urbaser, especially its CEO Fernando Abril-Martorell, the protagonist this week of our ‘Entrepeneurs’ section. In this case, his prominence is due to inaction. The chief executive of the US Platinum fund, billionaire Tom Gores, has received a “private and confidential” communication urging the “immediate dismissal” of Abril-Martorell for keeping two executives in their posts who had confessed to a bribery case in Canary Islands in exchange for contracts for the Spanish street cleaning and garbage collection giant. In this report we give you more details about this corruption plot.

Every time he speaks he raises the bread

Some banks, especially in the US, are now choosing not to publish their commitments and progress because they are afraid of the negative implications of any attack.

Onur Genc
— CEO of BBVA

Banks are beginning to fear that companies that harm the environment will be singled out for their financing. The CEO of BBVA, Onur Genç, asked that the accusations of ‘greenwashing’ (‘eco-laundering’) be careful and rigorous so as not to discourage banks that have good intentions when it comes to getting involved in the fight against climate change . The problem is that the climate crisis we are facing is one of the biggest problems on the planet and the banks continue to finance the fossil fuel industry. It is true that it is done with less funds than a few years ago, but billions are still coming. In fact, the 60 largest banks in the world granted 673,000 million dollars to this industry last year. Among them are three Spanish entities: Santander, with loans of more than 6,000 million dollars; BBVA, with 2,500 million; and CaixaBank, with 2,200 million. We risk too much to be silent.

public good

The networks were flooded with hoaxes when the Government announced the new obligation for companies to include in prevention plans the modification or reduction of the working day when there are official heat alerts. It was not at all unusual in the autonomous communities of the South, where the collective agreements include that in the season of high temperatures the working day is modified. However, intentionally erroneous messages quickly appeared that caused doubts in companies and workers: Do I have to close the bar at noon in summer? Am I going to lose my job if the temperatures rise?… In ‘Public Good’ we bring you This week a service information to clarify the new measure: the Government has reinforced labor protection by including express measures to deal with extreme heat. Its realization remains in the hands of the companies so that they are the ones who address whether there are activities that cannot continue to function in these peak temperatures due to the risk to the health of their staff. In this information from Laura Olías we clarify everything for you.

we like competition

In this section we present some articles from other media that we found interesting:

What was given is over. We’ll see each other again next Thursday. If you have a proposal or idea, write to us at [email protected].

Good week!

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