June 2020
03Jun

Coronavirus impact improves sustainability of Spanish pension system

Spain saw a rare improvement in the long-term sustainability of its pension system in May, but the data gave no cause for celebration because it was mainly the result of the coronavirus crisis and increased deaths among the elderly. Read also Chile’s pension system is changing for the worse Spain has been among European countries worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with the death toll now at 27,127. More than 80% of fatalities have been people aged 70 and older....

June 3, 2020
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May 2020

27May

Spain: Pension Payouts And Registrations Fall After Coronavirus Crisis Hits Elderly

The coronavirus crisis has triggered an historical drop in the number of state pensions paid out in Spain in May, in part because of two months of high mortality caused by coronavirus. Read also The Game of Pension Risk Transfers Continues Some 9,754,137 contributory pensions were paid out in May, 38,508 fewer benefits than were paid out in April.The fall has triggered an unprecedented drop in Spain’s monthly pension bill. In May, it fell by 0.3% to 9.8 billion...

May 27, 2020
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February 2020

15Feb

Ageing, Productivity and Employment Status

By Brindusa Anghel, Aitor Lacuesta The article analyses how labour market participation and the type of work performed change with age. Drawing on data from the OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), it is documented that as people age they gradually lose certain skills relating to their ability to do physical work or use new technologies, or their literacy and numeracy skills. By contrast, as they build up experience, older workers develop better planning skills...

February 15, 2020
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January 2020

15Jan

Spanish Government Gives Green Light To 0.9% Pension Increase

The first ministers cabinet meeting in Spain on Tuesday approved the rise in pensions by 0.9%. The increase will be applied retroactively from January 1 and will affect and will affect more than 10 million Spaniards, both contributory and non-contributory and passive class pensions. Read Also United Arab Emirates: The Introduction Of The DIFC Employee Workplace Savings Plan And Other Qualifying Schemes The 0.9% rise coincides with the average CPI estimate. If prices rise above that figure, the Government will compensate...

January 15, 2020
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June 2019

14Jun

The Effects of Pension-Related Policies on Household Spending

By Susana Párraga Rodríguez This paper estimates the impact of pension-related policies on household spending. The identification strategy exploits the deviation in pensioner income and expenditure caused by the introduction of a new pension system during the 1980s and 1990s in Spain and constructs a new narrative series of legislated pension changes. I present a variety of estimates, some of them imply that increases in the average pension have a roughly one-for-one effect on pensioner spending. The strongest effects...

June 14, 2019
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04Jun

How Much Does It Cost To Update Pensions In Spain In Line With Inflation?

One of the most controversial aspects of the 2013 reform of the Spanish system of public pensions has been the introduction of a revaluation index (the so-called IRP) which linked the updating of pensions, once triggered, to the financial situation of Social Security, thus abandoning the traditional reference to inflation measured by the consumer price index (CPI). Given the measure´s unpopularity, once inflation recovered after the crisis, it did not take long for it to be provisionally suspended. Currently,...

June 4, 2019
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April 2019

15Apr

The future of Spain: five parties, two models

On April 28, Spaniards will go to the polls in a snap national election triggered by a deadlock over the 2019 budget. Whichever government emerges from the vote will have to deal with this and other longstanding economic issues such as persistently high unemployment, ballooning debt and how to finance the pensions system with an ageing population. And on the political front, immigration and the Catalan crisis will continue to shape the national agenda. Spain in a snapshot Spain...

April 15, 2019
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February 2019

04Feb

Thousands of Spaniards protest for better pensions in Madrid

Thousands of older Spaniards are marching through downtown Madrid to demand better public pensions.Many protesters on Saturday held up homemade signs, including some that read “We are all pensioners” and “I’m old, not stupid.”Retiree groups and unions have held protests across Spain during recent months to demand that the government make sure that pension payouts rise in line with inflation. They argue that the 0.25 percent increase in 2017 was insufficient.Isabel Perez, 67, says “this is a fight that...

February 4, 2019
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December 2017

22Dec

Spain. CaixaBank Buys Banco BPI’s Card Business

Portugal's Banco BPI S/A (BPI.LB) will sell its card and point-of-sale activities to entities associated with CaixaBank SA (CABK.MC) for a total of 113 million euros ($134.1 million), the two banks said Thursday. CaixaBank SA (CABK.MC) holds a controlling stake in Banco BPI. CaixaBank Payments E.P., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CaixaBank, will acquire Banco BPI's credit and debit card-emitting activities for EUR53 million. At the same time, Comercia Global Payments E.P., a joint venture between CaixaBank and Global Payments Inc., will acquire...

December 22, 2017
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October 2017

09Oct

Spain. Blocked reforms

he Spanish economy has two very serious problems: signing of a wage agreement, which allows recovery of some of purchasing power in medium term, and a solution to reform pension system. Social agents (businessmen and trade unions) have shown a frustrating inability to reach a wage pact in 2017; It would be very dangerous for economic and social stability that agreement would also fail for 2018, because wage-earning policy cannot remain dissociated from reactivation. The recent agreement in Balearic...

October 9, 2017
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