Business News & Financial News

Spanish economy 7th September 2026

Spain pays 2,000 million euros a month in unemployment benefits, up 22% from four years ago

Official figures indicate a drop in unemployment; however, rising wages—driven by higher contribution bases—the upward adjustment of maximum benefit ceilings set by law, and the impact of inactive discontinuous-fixed workers (fijos discontinuos) are driving up total expenditure on unemployment benefits. The cumulative bill between January and July—the latest available data—amounts to 14,695 million euros, representing an average monthly outlay slightly exceeding 2,000 million euros. As a result, over the first…

In Europe 7th September 2026

Landslide victory for AfD in Saxony-Anhalt

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieved a landslide victory in Sunday’s regional elections in the state of Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote, more than double its result in 2021. Shortly after the first exit polls were released, party leader Ulrich Siegmund declared the result a “clear” mandate for AfD to govern. However, AfD fell short of an absolute majority, securing 39 out of 83 seats in the regional…

World economy 3rd September 2026

Solar energy is now the primary source of installed power capacity in China, overtaking coal for the first time

Solar power has become the leading source of installed electricity capacity in China, surpassing coal for the first time in a major milestone for the Asian giant’s energy transition, according to information reported by Bloomberg. As of the end of July, China reached 1,286 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity, accounting for 31.5% of its total generation capacity—just one month after solar was still 1 GW behind coal. According to the…

rosa garcia consejera caixabank acerinox ence

“Many companies complicate CSRD implementation more than necessary”

Rosa Mª García Piñeiro, board member at Caixabank, Acerinox, and Ence—serving as chair of the sustainability committee for the latter two and as a committee member at Caixabank—explains that “the directive does not set the materiality threshold. The company decides it based on its own criteria. There is nothing in the legislation that prescribes what is material and what is not. The auditor-verifier may have one opinion, the company may…

“We are one of Europe’s leading R&D investors: €1.45 billion last year”

“We need to approach negotiations with the U.S. on terms that are completely different from those currently being proposed”

Says Antonio Bonet, president of the Club of Spanish Exporters and Investors. He points out that “Europe has a single tariff applied by all member states, but the U.S. applies a tariff to each country, meaning it can decide that the tariff applied to Spanish black olives is higher than that for Italian olives, as it did at one point. So there is a part of the negotiation between Europe…

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