In tomorrow´s newspaper: Our Festive What´s On Guide
Friday, December 2 2016
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Spanish tax
increases on
alcohol, tobacco
and sugared drinks
Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy.
Madrid.—Spain’s conservatives will propose tax hikes
as part of the 2017 budget today, seeking to cut one of
Europe’s largest public deficits while looking to ease
pressure on the regions in a concession to powerful opposition parties. The minority government must balance complying with EU deficit targets with placating
the opposition as it attempts to navigate essential legislation through a hostile parliament.
The People’s Party (PP) took power in October after
two inconclusive elections. With a parliament split be-
tween the traditional opposition, the Socialists, and
two newcomer parties, it will need cross-party accords
to govern. The Socialists said yesterday they would aid
the approval of the deficit target in Parliament if the
government agreed to raise the minimum wage and relax budgetary pressure on the regions, many of which
are led by the opposition.
The Socialists will abstain to give the PP sufficient
votes to push the deficit goals through, a spokesman
said ahead of cross-party talks due yesterday afternoon.
Sterling surge after Britain drops hard Brexit line
/12
London.—A perceived
crack in Britain’s “hard
Brexit” line on leaving the
European Union dominated trading on major
currency markets yesterday, driving the pound 1
percent higher and helping spur a retreat in
broader measures of the
dollar’s strength. Sterling
surged 1.2 percent to a
three-week high of
$1.2663, also hitting an almost three-month high of
83.95 pence per euro after
Brexit minister David
Davis said Britain would
consider paying into the
EU budget for market access. As the dust settled,
traders were sceptical
whether the remarks
meant the Conservative
administration was getting any closer to giving
up the immigration controls that are seen as likely
to block such access.
But they were the latest
sign of a softer line that offers hope whatever solution emerges in talks
starting next year may not
be as disruptive to
Europe’s major economies
as previously feared.
“The idea that single
market is still a priority is
a move away from the
‘hard Brexit’ line,” said
Craig Erlam, chief market
analyst with retail brokerage Oanda in London.
“Since the two or three
major selloffs we saw earlier this year, the Bank of
England has changed its
stance to holding rates
next year, the data has
been better and now the
rhetoric has softened.”
However, this is just the first step in a drawn out process to get the already delayed 2017 budget in place.Once
the deficit targets are passed, prime minister Mariano
Rajoy must then convince Parliament to accept the
necessary budgetary measures.
Rajoy will propose tax increases on alcohol, tobacco
and sugared drinks as well as eliminating corporate tax
breaks, a government source said, the latest of a long
line of austerity measures which the opposition is
likely to resist.
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