Moody's Investors Service cut Spain's sovereign ratings by two notches, saying high levels of debt in the banking and corporate sectors leave the country vulnerable to funding stress.
Spain’s Abengoa has announced that it will construct a bio-ethanol plant in the department of Paysandu, Uruguay, for Alcoholes de Uruguay, or ALUR. The contract, which includes the construction of an adjoining power cogeneration plant, is worth 120 million dollars.
Ratings agency Standard and Poor's downgraded the long-term credit rating of Spain by one notch, knocking the Euro down by a third of US cent as it followed hard on the heels of a similar downgrade by Fitch last week.
Fitch cut on Friday Italy's sovereign credit rating by one notch and Spain's by two, citing a worsening of the Euro zone debt crisis and a risk of fiscal slippage in both countries. Fitch cut Italy's rating to A+ from AA- and lowered Spain to AA- from AA+.
The International Monetary Fund could buy Spanish or Italian bonds alongside the Euro zone bailout fund if needed, to help boost investor confidence in those countries, the IMF Europe head Antonio Borges said on Wednesday.
The number of people filing for unemployment benefits in Spain shot up by nearly 100,000 in September, a surprisingly big increase even in a month that tends to be bad for workers as vacation season contracts expires.
Already in difficulty under Spain’s Socialists, PSOE, the Trilateral forum (Spain, UK and Gibraltar) is unlikely to flourish under a Conservative PP government. That is the view expressed by Luis Ayllon, diplomatic correspondent of the right-leaning ABC Spanish national and a veteran reporter of Gibraltar affairs.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero dissolved parliament on Monday, but pledged more measures to tackle Spain's economic crisis before a November election that is expected to hand power to the conservative opposition.
Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez emphasized this week the growing relevance of Spain in Latin America, where Spanish firms have made 130 billion Euros worth of investments.
Any discussions that UK has on Gibraltar with Spain “reflect our clear position on sovereignty, which is that the UK will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their wishes” Europe Minister David Lidington has said.