increase
Business
Prices rose by 0.3% in November, annual inflation 1%
Business
Catalan exports rose a record 13.8% in August
Business
Traffic in Barcelona’s Port increased by almost 10% in March
Business
Barcelona El Prat Airport leads passenger growth in the EU
Business
El Prat Airport registers a record 39.7 million passengers for 2015
Business
Catalan exports grew by 5% and set a new record
Politics
Catalonia approves a tax on Internet providers and an external relations law
Culture
Catalan Theatre’s ‘carrot rebellion’ discussed at a congress in New York
Politics
Catalan economists want the Spanish Government “to talk without prejudgements” on Catalonia’s self-determination
The Cercle d’Economia, the main Catalan economic forum open to businesspeople and academics, has published an opinion note on the political context following the last Catalan elections. In the note, the Cercle asks the Spanish Government “to talk” about the Catalan self-determination and “to reform” the Constitution accordingly. The Cercle does not explicitly back an independent Catalonia but it supports a deep reform of Spain’s territorial organisation and the finding of a negotiated solution for both parties, which may be reached through a legal referendum. In addition, the Cercle asks for a review of Spain’s internal distribution of the deficit targets among government levels and to increase those of the Autonomous Communities.
Culture
Catalan art industries united against tax rise on culture
The Minister of Culture, Ferran Mascarell, met in Parliament with representatives from the Catalan cultural sector. In the meeting they discussed how unpopular the new VAT increase is within the cultural sector in Catalonia. Mascarell sent a letter to Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro and Spanish Culture Minister, José Ignacio Wert representing the cultural sector on this issue. The president of the Employers Association of Catalan Cinema, Camilo Tarrazón, said after the meeting "Spain will be the only state to have culture as a luxury good".
Politics
The Spanish Government threatens to financially asphyxiate the Autonomies that do not meet the deficit objective
The Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, announced that the Central Government might heavily fine the governments of Autonomous Communities that do not meet the deficit objective. Montoro, from the People’s Party (PP), met with the regional governments run by his party to prepare a common position on the issue. On the same day, the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) gave its support to the Spanish’s Government decree to cut public spending and increase taxes, announced at the end of December.
Business
Number of intercontinental passengers rises by 70% at Barcelona?s El Prat Airport
Within the last 5 years, Barcelona?s El Prat Airport has seen the number of intercontinental passengers grow about 70%. In addition, the number of flights and destinations within other continents have increased.