According to the annual review of the Spanish economy, known as ‘Article IV’, the IMF believes the impact of the European funds will increase the GDP growth forecast for 2021 to 7.2%. This compares with the previous estimate of 6.3% made in June. The final forecasts will be made known in October, when the institution will publish its biannual ‘World Economic Outlook’.
Macropolis | A video talk featuring Juan Pablo Riesgo, a partner of Ernst & Young and former Secretary of State for Employment in Spain, and Nick Malkoutzis, editor of MacroPolis, discussing how Spain and Greece should best use the Recovery Fund package proposed by the European Commission.
The labor market in Spain added 84,013 affiliates in September, the largest increase for this month in the series, while the jobless people fell by 26,329, also an historic high for the ninth month of the year, reported the Ministry of Labor today. With this figures the total number of unemployed reached 3,776,485 by the end of September. Even so, Spain leads European unemployment in August, with a rate of 16.2%, which is double than that of the Eurozone (8.1%), according to data published yesterday by Eurostat.
Elecnor, through its Portuguese aerospace subsidiary Deimos Engenharia, has been selected to develop the guidance, navigation and control systems for the Clearspace-1 mission. This is the first European mission aimed at cleaning up the garbage in space. The framework for this project is the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Adrios programme, the first European space debris removal mission, scheduled for launch in 2025.
Spain’s government will restrict movement in major cities facing severe outbreaks of Covid-19 from Friday night, thus avoiding the total lockdown model the whole country experienced in March. The measures will apply to cities with over 100,000 inhabitants, where there is an infection rate greater than 500 per 100,000 people over the next two weeks. All regional leaders debated on Wednesday and a majority agreement was reached in the end, although Madrid, Galicia, Andalucia and Catalonia voted against it.
According to the China Tourism Academy, more than 90% of hotels and tourist attractions in the country have reopened along with around 60% of travel agencies after containing the pandemic. Against this backdrop, Meliá Hotels has resumed work on an expansion plan which aims to double its presence in China within two years, from 5 to 10 hotels in operation. The reactivation of the domestic market have encouraged the company to open an ultra-luxury urban resort in Chengdu this week.
After a EU telco “virtual” trip approaching key themes that includes pricing, COVID impact, infra monetization, BoA Global Research concludes that Spanish price pressure is the exception. “Price competition is intense with early back-to-school activity and the return of football”, the analysts explain. They met with Euskaltel, Masmovil, Vodafone and Telefonica.
On Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved the extension of the temporary layoffs programs (ERTE) until January 31, 2021. This came in the wake of the pre-agreement reached with all social agents, unions and employers. Exemptions for resurgence ERTE will be up to 100% and for ERTE of certain sectors and companies will be between 75% and 85%.
Last week the Central Bank of Turkey raised its interest rate to 10.25% (compared to 8.25% previously). The Turkish lira recovered by 1% briefly against the euro and the dollar, but soon retook its downward trend. However, the move did give an unexpected boost to BBVA. Through its subsidiary Garanti, Turkey has become the Spanish bank’s third largest market by volume. BBVA’s shares shot up 5.3% (2,284 euros). A few days earlier, BBVA shares had recorded their minimum annual level of 2.16 euros
In the coming months, the uneven evolution of the different markets as they exit the crisis will provide an opportunity for those companies capable of grabbing the opportunities of the recovery in the global market. However, 89% of Spanish companies only operate in the domestic market, with no prospects outside our borders. This data has emerged from nearly 250,000 interviews conducted by Iberinform with the management teams of Spanish firms.