William Chislett | The Spanish Constitution turns forty today. The country now is another planet. The next 40 years, however, will be very different. The challenges ahead will test the cohesive society that has been created up to the present day. This article finishes a series that have been published in last weeks by The Corner to celebrate the milestone anniversary.
Despite the slowdown in Spain’s exports, the number of national companies starting to export and of regular exporters which have been exporting for four years in a row are rising. How strong these exporters are is the question that CaixaBank Research answer analysing the geographical diversity of the destinations to which they export.
The Spanish economy invested a total of €14.052 billion in research and development (R&D) in 2017, the equivalent of 1.2% of the GDP, according to Spain’s National Statistics Institute. Although this percentage is 6% higher than the previous year, “Spain would take 180 years to reach the 3% target set by the European Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy,” says Xavier Ferràs, Associate Professor in the Department of Operations, Innovation and Data Sciences at ESADE.
The elections in Andalucia have revolutionised Spanish politics with the the worst ever results for the socialist party (PSOE), which has been governing this autonomous community without interruption since 1978, and the entrance of the far right, in the form of the new party Vox, in the Spanish political map.
William Chislett | In the Franco regime and well into the 1980s, the lion’s share of Spanish banking business in a strongly protected and highly profitable market was in the hands of the so-called Big Seven and those banks, affiliated to or associated with them. The Big Seven have morphed over the past 30 years into the Big Two, as a result of a wave of mergers, after Spain joined the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1986.
The housing market continues to show an intense dynamic. Sales increased 9.7% in September, and drives an accumulated figure of 395,534 operations in the year so far, the largest volume in this period since 2008. Although the vigour is seen in all segments, sales of new houses stand, up 11.5% up to Q318.
From today until Thursday the President of China, Xi Jinping, is on an official visit to Spain. It is the first visit to Spain by a President of China for 13 years. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both countries will seek to advance the bilateral relationship in multiple areas, from bilateral political relations, geopolitics, economics and the educational-linguistic area to science, among others.
William Chislett | Spain has moved from a labour market characterised during the Franco regime by heavy state intervention, no free trade unions, the prohibition of strikes and lock-outs, a low female participation rate and paternalistic legislation to one that is flexible, but marked by consistently high unemployment.
Andy Mok via Caixin | President Xi Jinping’s visit to Spain on his way to Buenos Aires at the end of this month will result in the usual and necessary flurry of declarations about strengthening bilateral relations centered on trade as well as discussions on how Spain might support China’s diplomatic initiatives in the EU.
Spain has gone almost three years without a government with a parliamentary majority. The worst part is that there is nothing on the horizon that would guarantee more stability. To this already very complicated panorama must be added that the Supreme Court has been incapable of arbitrating a solution acceptable for Spanish society about who should pay mortgage stamp duty.