The Daily Telegraph, yesterday:
[Spanish] shoppers axed their spending in April compared to the same time last year, a drastically steeper decline than the 3.8pc drop in March and the 22nd monthly fall in a row.
The Bank of Spain warned that economy will shrink again in the second quarter and the Governor said he will step down. Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez will leave his post a month sooner than expected after attacks over his handling of the banking sector and the nationalisation of Bankia.
Italy paid a high price for the troubles of fellow problem debtor Spain on Wednesday when its 10-year bond borrowing costs topped 6 percent at auction, marking a new high since January.
A month ago Italy, with the world’s fourth-largest debt pile, had raised 10-year funds at 5.8 percent. The climb in Italian yields was even sharper on a five-year maturity. The Treasury paid 5.66 percent, the highest since December, on a new June 2017 bond – 80 basis points more than a month ago.
Nostalgia (late March):
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Wednesday played down the risk that economic troubles in Spain would spread to the rest of Europe and said he believed the eurozone debt crisis was nearly over.