MADRID Cheap Joakim Noah Jersey , Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Spanish public debt stood at 1.033 trillion euros (1.144 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2014, representing 98.1 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), according to advanced data published by the Bank of Spain on Tuesday.
Debt rose by 10.884 billion euros in December, marking the second consecutive month of rises after the figure fell in October. On a year-on-year basis, Spanish public debt rose by 67.777 billion euros Cheap Frank Ntilikina Jersey , 7 percent more than a year earlier.
Spanish public debt has not stopped rising on a year-on-year basis since 2008, when the housing bubble burst in the country and triggered a financial crisis. The debt stood at 436.984 billion euros that year and surpassed 1 trillion euros in 2014.
The figure provided by the Bank of Spain on Tuesday surpasses the Spanish government predictions for 2014, which stood at 97.6 percent. (1 euro = 1.14 U.S. dollars)
MILAN, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Italian banks have taken a beating in recent days in the wake of the announcement of the results of the ECB stress tests, although only two institutions Cheap Courtney Lee Jersey , Monte dei Paschi di Siena and Carige (Genoa Savings Bank), have serious problems in the short-term.
However, a growing number of Italian politicians consider the stress tests and new capital requirements not only insufficient but also misguided; they are calling for wholesale reform of the financial system, with a return to the separation between commercial banks and investment banks.
Among European countries, Italy topped the list with nine banks failing to pass the stress tests Cheap Charles Oakley Jersey , although most of the institutions have already taken measures sufficient to remedy the shortfalls. No problems were noted regarding the country's largest banks.
Before the test results were announced, many in Italy claimed the market was well aware of the problems at Monte and Carige, yet the country's financial system has nevertheless come under significant pressure, feeding long-term worries about the lack of trust in the nation among financial operators and institutions abroad. Italy's economy is in its third consecutive year of recession, after enacting heavy austerity and structural reforms beginning in 2011 at the height of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
The general view among politicians and economists in Italy is that the Italian banking system is solid Cheap Bernard King Jersey , yet there are many who believe the measures and regulations enacted by the ECB and other European Union (EU) institutions are not the proper medicine for an economy which has repeatedly found itself at the mercy of perceptions among international financial operators.
Numerous bills have been introduced in Parliament calling for a return to the separation between commercial banks and investment banks. The campaign seeks to go beyond the rules to ensure financial institutions have enough capital to weather a future crisis, and impose a clear division between different types of banking activities: banks which accept deposits and lend money to families and businesses would be heavily regulated and have their deposits protected by the state; those that operate on the financial markets, for example issuing and trading in financial derivatives, would be left on their own, free to fail when bets go wrong Cheap Allan Houston Jersey , without the hope of a bail-out from the taxpayers.
Giulio Tremonti, Italy's Finance Minister during the hottest phase of the global financial crisis starting in 2008, told Xinhua: "You can perform maintenance on the system, or change it. I believe it should be changed, with two key issues: Glass-Steagall to separate ordinary banks from speculative banks Cheap Willis Reed Jersey , and the emission of eurobonds for investment in infrastructure and growth throughout Europe." Both of these responses, he stressed, are political, not technical.
Tremonti was among the first to introduce a bill calling for a return to the separation between different types of banks, citing the celebrated Glass-Steagall Act in effect in the United States until 1999. It is that system Cheap Phil Jackson Jersey , originally signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, that has become a rallying point around Europe and in the United States for political figures and social groups who believe the response to the global financial crisis has been decidedly inadequate.
They point to the trillions of dollars and euros provided by governments and central banks to prop up financial institutions and markets, in contrast with the heavy austerity demanded of the general population. If a Glass-Steagall-style system had been in place, they say, no public money would have gone to save speculation; rather Cheap Mark Jackson Jersey , it would have been possible to sustain economic activity and prevent the crash from bringing families and productive businesses down with it.
There are currently nine bills calling for banking separation pending in the two houses of the Italian Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Every major political party has introduced one. Despite significant overlap among some of the texts, raising expectations for cooperation among different factions, the leaders of the largest parties are clearly not ready to move forward with the proposal, given the apparent lack of support in the executive and at the EU level.
As the EU institutions prepare to implement plans for a banking union under the centralized supervision of the ECB Cheap Walt Frazier Jersey , they have shown little interest in discussing the growing calls for revising the structure of the "universal bank" in effect in Europe since reforms were passed in the 1990s, eliminating the various forms of separation and specialization existing until that time.