Wednesday, Apr 22, 2009
The nation’s jobless rate, already a painful 15.5 percent, could soon reach 20 percent, a troubling
Nytimes: Spain’s Falling Prices Fuel Deflation Fears in Europe
VALENCIA, Spain — Faced with plunging orders, merchants across this recession-wracked country are starting to do something that many of them have never done: cut retail prices.
Posted by chris @ 02:28 AM (585 views) Add Comment
12 Comments
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1. uncle tom said...
Bit of a non story really - a tiny amount of deflation in Spain gets recorded and someone jumps to conclude this is a Japanese re-run.
Spains retail system is remarkably primitive compared to our own, with huge numbers of small and intrinsically inefficient shops.
There is one massive department store chain, called, curiously, El Corte Ingles ("The English Court")
Spain may well see a little more deflation, but that will be the least of their worries. I will be quite surprised if the summer passes off without major civil disturbances..
2. happy mondays said...
I think you may well be right ut, the Spanish people are not so tolerant as the brits, and are also a bit more passionate about what they believe in... With over 14 % unemployed and rising, there are a lot of angry young men ! I do not think being a brit living in the costa's will be popular much longer..
3. Kyuzo said...
Acutally "El Corte Inglés" means "the English Cut" or "English Style" as we are so famous over there for being fab with fashion...
4. Kyuzo said...
There have already been some large disturbances involving students in Barcelona. And there will sadly be attacks on immigrants—these are already happening—but these are likely to be poor immigrants from Eastern Europe, Africa and South America now no longer needed to do the "dirty" jobs—Brits (and Germans) are seen as bringing their retirement money into the country, being the victims of corrupt local officials, and generally contributing to the economy in a positive way. Most Spaniards are well aware that their "economic miracle" was based on tourism on the costas and on massive over-construction and that banks like the Caixa de Castilla failed because the managers dubiously lent money to their construction buddies, and you can't bankrupt a friend, now, can you? When a typical construction worker, who was able to *afford* the mortgage on an expensive flat, a big car and downpayments on a place by the sea, plus the usual tvs and gadgets has to go to a soup kitchen because his dole has completely run out after only one year, things may get messy...
5. uncle tom said...
Kyuzo,
Funnily enough, I had always assumed that it meant that, but when I tried using the Google translator to check, it came out slightly differently.
6. Kyuzo said...
"La corte" means "the court", "el corte" means "the cut"... its a question of gender
7. inbreda said...
"not so tolerant as the brits" should surely read "not so hopelessly apathetic as the brits"
8. mym said...
"With over 14 % unemployed and rising, there are a lot of angry young men"
More than you think, the spanish unemployment rate for those under 25 is now 32%
9. Happy Mondays said...
@ inbreda, totally agree... did not want to upset anyone this morning!
10. happy mondays said...
@ mym , that's alot of p*ssed off fiery young men, thanks for the more detailed info..
11. happy mondays said...
@ inbreda, i totally agree, did not want to upset anyone this morning..
12. mander said...
It looks like Americans are trying to advice the Spanish people what a mistake it was to join the euro because now Spain could have zero interest rates and could have printed a lot of money. Now Spain is lucky to be in the euro zone and not in the "Iceland zone" because Iceland had same freedom to cut interest rates and print money. And Ireland is a perfect example of the safety of the euro zone...
By the way I heard that the Chinese are buying metals instead of the new printed dollars...