The Bank of Portugal said the use by domestic banks for the various facilities available from the ECB rose to €56.3bn in March – up from €47.5bn in February and greater than the previous record level of €49.1bn in August 2010.
Bailed out by the EU and International Monetary Fund in April 2011 for €78bn, Portugal has €12bn earmarked for bolstering its banks' capital positions if necessary in the months ahead. The plight of Portugal's banks was revealed following the cash injection by the ECB in February when the central bank lent €529bn to 800 banks across the eurozone through its long-term refinancing operation (LTRO). Portuguese banks were among those frozen out from the wholesale funding markets – where banks borrow from each other or professional investors – during the height of the eurozone crisis and as a result are among a number in the eurozone that utilise ECB funding. "I think it's natural and reasonable for banks to have taken advantage of these funds under the circumstances, especially after the ECB relaxed some collateral requirements before February's injection," Teresa Gil Pinheiro, chief economist at Banco BPI in Lisbon, told Reuters. "The LTRO injection was in late February so it's natural that it is registered in March," she said. The Portuguese continued reliance on ECB funding comes amid fresh concerns in the eurozone about the price at which the governments of Spain and Italy can borrow on the markets. A weak auction of Spanish government bonds last week – when some €2.5bn rather than €3.5bn were sold – was regarded a sign that the initial confidence the ECB created through its injections of cheap cash was evaporating.
6 comments:
Japan is suffering from the same thing as the U.K everyone has caught up with them and can make what they can. Most of the products from China are loss leaders to get the market, once they put out of business their competitors they will raise prices. Japanese cars in the late seventies were the same price or cheaper as their U.K equivalents with all the electric gadgets thrown in for free. Now they are premium cars after they destroyed the U.K car industry.
Social network giant Facebook has bought Instagram – a profitless, two-year-old photo sharing website – for $1bn.
Instagram is a mobile sensation that counts Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey among its backers. It has been downloaded by over 30 million people. When the Silicon Valley startup released a version for Android phone users this month, it was downloaded a million times in its first 12 hours.
Celebrities including Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian have accounts. President Barack Obama signed up in January.
The app allows people to share photos taken with their mobiles with friends on its own site and Facebook, Twitter or via text. Photographers can use a variety of filters to alter the look of their pics, with names like Lo-fi, Earlybird or Nashville giving their images a vintage, old world feel. Users can then vote on pictures and add comments.
Whatever - everyone move along now.
Conspiracy stories, monopoly fearmongering etc. - just MOVE along.
I'm sure Zuckerberg has the best interests of all the Instagram users at heart - and doesn't think any of them are schmucks.
I'm also sure the company behind Instagram never intended to make heaps and heaps of cash from their application and this massive billion dollar buyout is just a complete surprise...
"OMG, we never figured we'd make any money from this! - and now look! - we're mega-rich overnight, we never wanted to be!"
Furthermore, I'm positive Facebook won't make any changes at all to the application and that it will remain advert free and ensure it's customers come before revenue generation. OH yes.
You definitely will never, in the future, need a facebook account to use Instagram - never. Cough.
Spain's government yesterday announced plans for more cuts. Christian Schulz at Berenberg notes:
Together with the regions, the central government wants to make €10bn of savings per year in education and health. The cuts would come on top of the €27bn deficit reduction plan announced in March. If the government can agree with the regions on these additional cuts, they may partly fill the €15bn gap the regions need to close to fulfil their deficit target of 1.5% in 2012.
The strong fiscal tightening this year to cut the deficit from 8.5% to 5.3% may stoke fears of a deeper recession and potentially a Greek-style downward spiral in Spain.
Spanish sovereign debt fell in value again this morning, pushing up the yield (the measure of the interest rate) on its 10-year bonds to 5.8% this morning. The difference between the yield on Spanish and German debt is at its greatest since November, with a spread of 4.1%.
Yields on Italian and Greek sovereign debt also rose to 5.51% and 22.1% respectively.
Eurozone investor sentiment dropped this month, after three consecutive increases. Sentix research group said its index, which tracks sentiment in the region, dropped to -14.7 compared with -8.2 in March.
9.26am: The governor of Spain's central bank is also talking this morning. Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said a strong recovery of the Spanish economy is unlikely in the short term. And, if the economy continues to deteriorate, he said more capital would be needed for the banks.
The cost of insuring against a Spanish default is getting close to its record high. Spanish credit default swaps rose 16 basis points to 4.78% this morning, compared to a high of 4.87% in November last year.
9.23am: The Spanish minister for the economy has also said Spain may sell off public real estate.
Luis De Guindos has given a string of interviews over the past week, where he has stressed the country's commitment to reform. Spain is under pressure from Europe to rein in spending, as fears mount that the region's fourth biggest economy may need a bail-out
"The Greek government, like most modern governments has spent a greater part of their public wealth on building formidable police force"
Hhhmmm... While there has, especially in the past couple of weeks, been a definite suppression of protest.. The main reason that all Greeks have not taken to the streets is because
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