Business

In total there were 595,342 people registered as unemployed at the end of May in Catalonia. This 1% reduction in relation to the previous month is not good news compared to May 2010, when there were 20,000 fewer people in dole queues. Unemployment decreased throughout Catalonia and in all sectors. In Spain as a whole, there were 4,189,659 people registered as unemployed.

‘Barcelona Activa’ is Barcelona City Council’s agency for local development. Its main activities are promoting business and employment creation. ‘Barcelona Activa’ wins the Grand Jury Prize of the 2011 European Enterprise Awards, organised by the European Commission, the European Presidency and the Committee of the Regions.

Barcelona El Prat and Madrid Barajas airports will be run by private operators. The Spanish Government has already started informal contacts with potential private operators. Public competition would begin this summer, would take place in two phases and will end before the end of 2011.

‘Construmat’ is Spain’s main trade fair for the construction industry and will run until Saturday May 21st. Barcelona’s fair will have a “sister” event in China next year, with Chinese companies but also with those present at the current ‘Construmat’.

The Swedish multinational plans to open new stores in Sabadell, Tarragona and Girona. The shops will create 1200 jobs

The European presentation of the Audi Q3, which will be unveiled in Catalonia, is the focus of the first day’s attention at Bacelona’s Automobile Fair. Electric cars are set to be one of the main attractions of this year’s Fair. The ‘Saló de l’Automòbil’, in its 36th year, will run until May 22nd.

The transformation of the savings bank La Caixa’s industrial holding, Criteria into the private bank CaixaBank is reaching the final stage. Criteria’s stockholder board approved duplicating the current stocks by issuing 300,000 convertible bonds. The new bank expects increasing its market share in Spain by 50% through business activity increase and new acquisitions in the period 2011-2014. The announcement is made the day after billionaire Carlos Slim bought 900,000 CaixaBank stocks.

The airline Vueling, which has its main base at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, has a network of permanent operating bases, to which Paris Orly will be added if French authorities give the green light. Vueling’s Chairman, Josep Piqué, announced that a minimum of six planes will be based at France’s second airport. Across the 21 routes it has in France, the airline estimates that it will carry 26% more passengers in 2011 when compared to last year.

Tourists from Eastern Europe will increase their presence in Catalonia this summer season, according to experts in the sector. Girona is now linked with 60 destinations while at the same Ryanair is reducing its flights from the airport and in a dispute with the Catalan Government over subsidies. Spanair will operate Ryanair’s flight to Madrid if no other airline does it.

April numbers have broken a three-month continuous trend of unemployment increases. In total there were 601,541 people registered as unemployed at the end of April.

The Catalan Ministry of Economy and Knowledge has released its macroeconomic outlook for 2011. At the end of the current year, the unemployment rate will be 18%, up from 2010.

East Asian and South Mediterranean countries are the two regions with the largest cargo exchange at Barcelona Port. In total, 538,700 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) passed through Barcelona during the first quarter of 2011.

More than 727,000 people were unemployed at the end of March 2011 in Catalonia, 40,900 jobseekers more than at the end of 2010. In Spain as a whole, the unemployment rate has reached 4.91 million people, a rate of 21.29%.

Car manufacturer SEAT, whose factory is in Barcelona, is present for the first time in Shanghai. Its cars will be seen in China’s roads as of 2012. Audi also officially introduced its new crossover model, the Audi Q3, which will be entirely produced in Barcelona. Auto Shanghai 2011 closes its doors on April 28 and is the main show of this kind in Asia.

The Catalan firms have their headquarters in Barcelona. Gas Natural Fenosa is Spain’s sixth largest company and Criteria Caixa the seventh according to the magazine. In the ‘Forbes’ Global 2,000 List, which ranks the 2,000 world’s largest companies, Gas Natural occupies 269th place and Criteria Caixa 322nd.