With 5.13 billion in foreign sales in June, Catalan exports have grown by 6.6% over the same period in 2011. Amongst the Autonomous Communities, Catalonia ranks first for its export economy, in the first six months of this year Catalan companies sold up to €29.1 billion abroad. The increase in foreign exports and the fall in imports have reduced the trade deficit by 31% in the first six months of this year.
The Catalan Government’s drug prescription fee and the Spanish Executive’s decision to make citizens pay for a greater share of prescribed drugs have had an effect on inflation. The price of pharmaceutical products has had its highest increase since at least 2003.
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.
Considering the “exceptional” crisis Spain’s banking system is going through, the Cercle d’Economia, a Catalan economic forum open to businesspeople and academics, recommends “drastic” measures in order to face a “systemic” problem at European level. The Chairman of Cercle d’Economia, former Spanish Minister Josep Piqué, stated that Spain “will not succeed on its own”.
The President of the European Central Bank, whose Governing Council met in Barcelona on May 3rd, praised the Spanish Government’s “significant effort” made in a “very short period of time” to approve structural reforms. However, Mario Draghi, asked Spain “to persevere” in the strategy based on austerity and accomplish further reforms. The ECB’s President emphasised Europe’s need to adopt measures strengthening economic growth but without abandoning the principles of austerity. Draghi recommended continuing to reduce public spending in order to control the deficit. As expected, the ECB is maintaining the interest rate at 1%.
Unemployment in Catalonia reaches a new historical record with 836.900 people registered as out of work. Spain’s unemployment rate at the end of March was 24.44%, reaching a total figure of 5,639,500 jobless people. The Spanish Vice President said on Friday that Spain is living “the harshest moments” of the crisis and that the data show that reforms need to be pursued. The Catalan Government criticised the Spanish Government for reducing the budget for employment policies by 56% due to be implemented in Catalonia in its budget proposal for 2012.
In the three first months of the year, the inflation rate remained stable in Catalonia. The monthly price increase, which is the highest since October 2010, is mainly due to the end of retail sales and the oil price increase. In Spain, prices increased by 0.7% in March, while the annual inflation rate was set at 1.9%.
The Spanish Economy grew by 0.7% last year, however decreased by 0.3% in the last quarter, because of the “contraction in domestic demand”. The Catalan Finance Minister, Andreu Mas-Colell, said he would review the 0.8% growth prediction for 2012, since the latest data points to an economic slowdown. Besides, the Spanish Deputy Minister for the Economy, Fernando Jiménez Latorre, stated that data for the first term of 2012 “will be similar” to that of the last quarter of 2011 “or a bit worse”; if confirmed, it would mean a recession.
15,644 companies opened for business in Catalonia last year, which represents an 8.76% increase compared to 2010. However, in 2011, there was also a 3.17% increase in the number of companies that shut down.
At the end of 2011 there were 614,244 people registered as unemployed in Catalonia, 9.17% more than a year ago. However, unemployment dropped in December by 1,425 people, after it stabilised in November, leaving September and October as the worst months of the year. In stark contrast to Catalonia, the rest of Spain experienced an increase in unemployment in December and 2011 ended with 4,422,359 people signing on the register, 7.86% more than at the end of 2010.
Car sales drastically decreased last year, with the only exception being luxury vehicles. Less than 120,000 cars were sold in Catalonia, a figure similar to that of 1993. In Spain as a whole, car sales fell by 17.7%.
The Catalan Government considered the figures “worrying” but puts them to a “complicated” financial situation that has provoked an economic uncertainty. On Tuesday, the Government announced an action plan to reduce unemployment in the short term. In Spain, there are almost 5 million unemployed people, which represents an unemployment rate of 21.52%. Lleida has Spain’s lowest unemployment rate, set at 13.02%.
The data corresponded to the end of June. The Spanish Statistics Institute confirmed the data, proving the prediction by the Bank of Spain of a slowdown in the economy.
602,611 people were unemployed at the end of February in Catalonia, which is 2.2% more than at the end of January.
For the whole of Spain, Autonomous Communities’ public debt represents 10.2% of Spain’s GDP in the 3rd term of 2010. It is the highest it has been since 1990. However, the largest part of the public debt comes from the Spanish Government, which represents 44.1% of Spain’s GDP. Finally, public debt from local public administrations only represented 3.4% of Spain’s GDP. In total, Spain’s public debt represents 57.7% of the country’s GDP, much lower than in the UK, Germany or Ireland.