Business

House sales maintain a decline as results show that sales have fallen by 19% in first half of 2012. Despite the negative overall trend, Lleida and Tarragona saw a boost in sales last month, making up for the reduction in sales experienced in Barcelona and Girona, culminating in a 2.7% overall increase in sales this June for Catalonia. In Spain, the fall in the first half of the year was 21% and in June, in contrast to the increase Catalonia, there was a fall of 11.2% compared with June 2011.

The Catalan highway, transport and telecommunication management company Abertis has accepted Tagus’ takeover of its shares in Brisa, which represent 15.02% of the Portuguese highway company. Abertis now wants to focus on projects that represent added value for its global strategic action. In addition, two days ago, Abertis’ board ratified last April’s agreement to acquire 9 highway concessions from OHL in Brazil. With this operation, the Catalan company becomes the largest group in the world managing highways, with more than 7,000 kilometres worldwide.

According to a report by the trade union CCOO, with the Spanish Government’s last budget adjustment, after the sixth month of being unemployed people will no longer receive an average of €222 per month. The report points out that people aged between 45 and 55 will be the most affected since many are in a long-term unemployment situation and will no longer qualify to receive any subsidies. Cristina Faciaben from the CCOO is convinced that the last series of measures to reduce the public deficit will not achieve its objective, and on the contrary will lead to a worsening of the economic crisis.

The Catalan economy remains in recession and decreased by 1.1% compared to last year. Although tourism and the foreign sectors have seen an increase, internal demand has been reduced, decreasing business in the industrial, construction and services sectors. The number of foreign tourists increased by 12.3% and tourist spending increased by 14.3%. In both cases, the percentages are much higher than the figures for Spain as a whole (2.9% and 5.6% respectively).

In an interview with Catalonia’s Public Radio Broadcaster, the Spokesperson for the Council of the European Union, Cristina Gallach said that the ECB will offer “unlimited” backing although the Bundesbank “doesn’t want this in any way”. Gallach takes the announcement by the President of European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, as a direct challenge to Germany. Gallach also urged the Catalan Government to clarify Catalonia’s situation in Brussels, stating that the European Institutions have entrenched the message that the autonomous communities are primarily responsible for the Spanish deficit.

Unemployment dropped in July by 784 people, which represents a 0.13% decrease compared to a month ago. It is the fifth consecutive month that the number of unemployed people has decreased in Catalonia, reaching 614,792 jobseekers. In the whole of Spain, unemployment decreased for the fourth month in a row, dropping by 0.6%. Long term unemployment and youth unemployment have decreased in Catalonia. However, compared to 12 months ago, general unemployment has increased by 7.8%. In addition, the number of indefinite new contracts dropped by 1.3% compared to a year ago.

The Catalan airline Vueling, based in Barcelona, increased by 16.2% the number of flights compared to a year ago. The airline has defied the Spanish market trend with an increase in its global volume of passengers by nearly 19%. Vueling attributes this increase to a growth in the company’s activity and a rise in its flight occupation rate, which reached 75.5%.

The Catalan pharmaceutical company Grifols, the third world leader in the production of blood plasma based technologies, has seen its turnover increase by 15% in the first half of 2012 to €1.32 billion. Its net profit for the first half of 2012 was €133.5 million, seven times that of the previous year. The company’s success is attributed to its wide geographical consumer base and the recent purchase of US based Talecris Plasma Resources.

Unemployment has fallen by 15,400 people in Catalonia during the second quarter according to the latest Labour Force Survey published this Friday by the National Statistics Institute. The overall totals indicate that 821,600 of the working population in Catalonia are unemployed at a rate of 20.95%, 130,700 more than a year ago. The state total shows an increase in unemployment in the second quarter, bringing Spain’s total to 5.7 million people without work, 24.6% of the working population. With nearly a quarter of the working population unemployed, the figures are higher than the historical record reached in 1994 during the last crisis.

Barcelona is overcoming the effects of the economic crisis. So says, the President of Tourism of Barcelona, Joan Gaspart, who revealed spending by tourists in Barcelona in 2011 came to on average 741 euros, 124 euros more than in 2010. In the first six months of 2012, the number of tourists has increased by 1.69%, overnight stays by 2.26%, and credit card spending has increased by 27.08%, compared to the same period of 2011. Gaspart stressed that these increases, although "modest", show that the industry "is doing a good job" to the point where predictions given for the second half of the year also indicate an improvement.

A combination of Spain’s economic predictions and Valencia’s formal request to the central government for financial assistance shook the markets on Friday, despite the stringent the austerity measures passed this week and the approved deal to lend up to 100bn euros to the Spanish banking sector. The Spanish government expects an unemployment rate of 24.3% and a fall in GDP of -0.5% in 2013, expecting to be out recession by 2014 and 2015 with a GDP growth of +1.2% and 1.9% respectively. The Valencian Government has requested assistance from the Spanish Government, making it the first autonomous community to ask for emergency financing from the regional liquidity fund.

Ryanair, the low cost Irish airline, announced this Friday the closure of four flights from Barcelona due to the rising costs approved by the Spanish government and imposed by the AENA, the institution responsible for Spanish airports and aerial navigation. Ryanair has also cancelled eleven flights in Madrid, including a service from Girona. Michael O’Leary, the Chief Executive of Ryanair, announced that the services will stop from November. Barcelona Airport will lose connections to the East Midlands, Leeds Bradford, Hamburg and Trieste.

The Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias has finished a seven-day visit to China. The aim of the trip was to promote Barcelona’s economy and attract new foreign investment in the Catalan capital. The Mayor spoke of the trip in a very positive light, pointing out the economic potential of Barcelona and highlighting the Chinese companies’ appreciation for the opportunity to invest in Barcelona.

Illegal street sales, colloquially called in Catalonia ‘top manta’, is a daily problem that police and councils face and find difficult to solve. This non authorized business has a turnover of about €100 million per year. Coinciding with the beginning of the tourist season, the Confederation of Commerce of Catalonia (CCC) has started a new campaign called ‘Estirem de la manta’ (‘Pull the blanket’) to deal with this irregular practice. The objective: to raise awareness of the social and economic harm of this illegal activity with tourists and natives in order to tackle the problem. The CCC estimates that there are about 2,500 people currently working in this prohibited business in Catalonia.

The British financial news publication has also awarded the Spanish Santander the ‘Best Bank in the World 2012’. Euromoney emphasised CaixaBank’s fiancial solvency and its strong growth over the previous years.