Spain’s banks look set to face a year of patchy but steady recovery on the back of the country’s emergence from eight years of recession. “The situation of the Spanish banking sector is improving at a gradual pace, in line with our expectations,” says Elena Iparraguirre, director of bank ratings at S&P Global Ratings.
“This is helped by the macroeconomic environment, with positive gross domestic product [GDP] growth forecast for the current year, along with a drop in unemployment. These factors are facilitating a reduction in the stock of problematic assets and a marginal increase in property transactions and prices, enabling the banks to reduce their stock of property assets, which they are no longer selling at losses,” she adds.
