Edward Harrison

Spain Begs to Be at Upcoming G-20; Brazil Refuses

In my view, the reason Spain (and the Netherlands, for that matter) are not represented in the G-20 is out of pure politics i.e. over-representation of Europe and under-representation of LatAm and Emerging economies. I would wholeheartedly support Spain's admission to the G-20, but obviously, that doesn't matter much. Spain will stay out until the politicians find a way to include it.

This is much the same sort of politics at play with Russia and the G8.

Spain Begs to Be at Upcoming G-20; Brazil Refuses

Pinheiro, I certainly don't wish ill for Spain. In fact, an Argetine friend and I were wondering how Argentina was in the G-20 and Spain was not. The facts you quote regarding Spanish multinationals and the Spanish GNP would suggest that Spain belongs in the G-20.

But, they are not. They are standing on the outside looking in.


On May 01 11:47 AM Pinheiro wrote:

> just a few huge 'buts' to this unbalanced article. Spain is still
> the biggest economy in the Spanish speaking world, according to WB
> statistics (ex aequo with Mexico in PPP basis, but ahead of it in
> CER, which is the criteria used by economists to measure the size
> of a given economy). Moreover, Span's GNP is much bigger than those
> of ten current member of the G20, in fact it's a little bigger than
> those of Brazil and Canada. It should be added that Spain is the
> fifth largest foreign investor worldwide and it boasts a wide range
> of trully world class multinationals, among then three of the five
> biggest renewable energy companies ( Iberdrola, Acciona and Abertis),
> it has one of the soundest financial systems (BBVA, Santander, which
> is now the biggest bank in euro area and among the five world biggest)-
> CCM is a small savings bank, not a mayor one (present only in one
> of the 17 regions of Spain). Next time, Mr. Harrison, don't confuse
> your wishes with reality.