BBVA Executive Director José Manuel González-Páramo predicts that the European Central Bank’s (ECB) monetary policy will normalize next year. He estimates that the ECB will announce a slower pace for asset purchases in the fall. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we saw the first interest rate hike at the end of 2018,” he said, during the Círculo de Economía meeting in Sitges.

BBVA Compass shored up its commitment to alleviating Colorado’s affordable-housing crisis, closing a $1.8 million equity equivalent investment this month in the Mile High Community Loan Fund so that the organization can continue to give affordable-housing developers access to the capital they need.

April 2017 Update. Tensions continued between North Korea and US over the nuclear test programme and the US increased its missile defence system in the area. The Chinese will continue to maintain the statuo quo while the tone of the US escalated but softened thereafter. In the Middle East, the advances of the coalition forces continue and the the ISIS situation deteriorates. The US decided to advance in Raqqa (the ISIS capital) supporting the YPG forces in the combats. Turkey has already protested the decision. Social unrest increased in some Latin American countries, while Asia remained calm. Uncertainties about the future of Europe decreased after Macron’s victory in French elections.

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Technological capital, human capital, regulatory capital and social capital… all are dimensions that the science of economics measures and includes in its analyses. Cultural capital is not a common concept in this science, however. But Timothy Besley, Professor at the London School of Economics (LSE) feels it is fundamental as a conditioning aspect of the economic activity of any organization, institution or country.

This is one of the findings of ‘Most Attractive Employers’, a report prepared by Universum in collaboration with Employer Branding Academy, Centro de Estudios Garrigues, Europea Media (Universidad Europea), and Dircom.

The earth, capital and technology have been the strategic factors in the industrial revolutions that have taken place from the Neolithic period to the 20th Century. However, in the fourth industrial revolution, which is now underway, individual talent will be the key to success.

BBVA held in March its 6th annual Public Sector Investors and Issuers Seminar bringing together 60 central banks, sovereign borrowers, supranational institutions, and national agencies for 3-days of discussions on a broad range of investment themes.

Some of the key themes discussed were the impact of unconventional monetary policies on public sector issuers and investors, the challenges facing reserve managers in times of negative interest rates, and the debt management strategies of public sector issuers. The following are four of the most interesting issued discussed.

One of the first projects BBVA Compass pursued after the bank made its $11 billion commitment to low- to moderate-income communities in late 2014 has come online and put 128 low-income Austin families in green homes zoned to some of the area’s best schools.

Women still have a long way to go in Latin America and data is the key to driving social policies than will put an end to inequality. This was the principal conclusion reached by the Fundación Microfinanzas BBVA, (Microfinance Foundation BBVA) during its participation in CSW61, the largest United Nations meeting on gender inequality and the empowerment of women.

The economic slowdown in Latin America will come to an end this year, with a 1.1% growth rate in the region. Forecasts by BBVA Research estimate that in 2018, the region´s economy will continue to recover, with GDP expanding at the rate of 1.8%. This is still well below its potential, which is estimated at close to 3%.