Follow this link to watch from the beginning of the interview, or skip to minute 34 on the video below.

Markets have been jittery in recent days, especially around fears that the simmering embers of the Euro Area debt crisis might be about to reignite. Bond yields in both Spain and Italy have risen this week, while concerns continue to…

As foreseen in recent updates on Spain, the market for SGBs remains calm and spreads across the maturity horizon are tightening. Last week Spanish ten year yields fell below the 5% mark for the first time since March last year, while two year yields are now hugging the 2% threshold. During the week the Spanish debt agency sold 5.8 billion euros worth of bonds at yields which were significantly down over recent levels across all maturities.

Our Chief Editor was on Spanish television yesterday to talk about Spain’s economy and the viability of a Catalan state. You can see the interview here (in Spanish) or below.  

In our view, the Spanish banking system is in need of wholesale recapitalisation to deal with the sizeable losses in the country’s property market. This will likely include a bad bank provision. Before that happens, the ECB’s open market operations will mainly buy time in the form of liquidity as well as provide banks with money to exchange bad loans for lending to the government.

Greece is in default and Ireland and Portugal are in limbo with the market pricing in a Greek outcome in both economies. However, the situation has changed in Spain and Italy and on this measure alone, the ECB’s LTRO has been successful.