In May, the Spanish government will hold an auction for the 700 megahertz (Mhz) frequency band scheduled for this year, 2020, in order to complete the release of the spectrum needed for the mass deployment of the new 5G mobile technology before June 30.
CaixaBank Research | Immigration is back in Spain after years of crisis in which there were many more immigrants departing than arriving (between 2010 and 2014). More specifically, Spain has once again become a net recipient of foreign immigration since 2015 and the trend has intensified in recent years: net inflows of foreign nationals reached 330,000 people in 2018 according to the migration statistics of the National Statistics Institute. The following are the main conclusions.
The sale of homes registered a total of 501,085 transactions in 2019. This was due to the decline in second-hand housing transactions, as new home purchases increased 1.2 %, says the National Statistics Institute (INE). On the other hand, housing prices continued to rebound, according to Q4’19 statistics from the Spanish housing registers.
Portugal’s political stability and its government’s renewed commitment to consolidate public finances will keep its public debt ratio on a firm downward path, in contrast with Spain and Italy. Portugal’s economic and fiscal adjustment since the crisis has been impressive, says Scope Ratings.
CaixaBank Research | Spain’s boom in international tourism between 2011 and 2016 coincides with a long period of instability suffered by Egypt and Tunisia following the Arab Spring of 2010, as well as the episode of insecurity suffered by Turkey between 2015 and 2016. This reduction in competition for Spain helped its number of international tourist arrivals to rise at a considerably fast rate of 6.1% per year. This beneficial situation for the Spanish market came to an end in 2018 as we explain here.
Spain’s democracy was ranked 18 last year, out of a total of 167 democracies analyzed by the Democracy Index of The Economist’s Intelligence Unit. This ranking represents an advance of one position compared to the previous year. Despite this good mark, the publication condemns Spain for the long sentences it imposed on the Catalan leaders of the so called “procés.”
Bankinter | According to INE (Spanish Statistical Office) 83.7 million foreign tourists visited Spain last year, an increase of 1.1% over 2018. Their spending also broke a record, rising 2.8% to €92.278 million. Among the main tourist destinations, the ones that did well were Madrid +7,0%, the Autonomous region of Valencia +3,9% and Andalusia +3,4% and the ones that didn’t were The Canary Islands -4,4% and the Balearic Islands -1,2%.
J.P. Marín Arrese / Looking for any rational clue in the extricate discussion on labour relations seems a hopeless aim. One even wonders why economists still call it a market when it departs so obviously from any standard pattern.
The Bank of Spain has confirmed that the Euribor rate, the reference index for most Spanish mortgages, ended January at an average -0.253%, compared to -0.263% in December, representing its fifth consecutive monthly rise. Despite this rebound, the market assumes the index will remain in negative territory at least until 2022,given that the European Central Bank is likely to maintain its expansive policy.
Unemployment rose in January by 90,248 people and the Social Security system lost 244,044 members, the worst figure since 2013, when Spain was trying to emerge from the crisis. All the Autonomous Communities, except for the Balearic Islands, have seen the unemployment rate rise in all sectors except construction, so some Autonomous Communities already have more unemployed than in 2019.