Fernando González Urbaneja | Pedro Sánchez has promised in some ad hoc forums to repeal the labour reform, although in other forums he has argued the opposite in order to point to a revision of the Workers’ Statute taking into account the new labour frameworks of the 21st century.
The Ministry of Health has notified on Monday that 90% of the target population, i.e. those covered by the vaccination campaign, have already received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. In total there are 37,891,519 people, almost 80% of the total population of Spain. With regard to the current average incidence of infection in Spain in the last 14 days, the slight rise recorded in recent days has been slowed down, with the figure falling to 41.90 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
At the end of the first half of 2021, world GDP had already recovered end-2019 levels – after a decline of 3.5% in 2020 – thanks to the strong growth of the Chinese and US economies, according to calculations made in May by the OECD. Analysts at Oxford Economics agree in their calculations, which also talk about a GDP of 100.1% of 2019 in June 2021 and of a global…
Repsol will stop producing oil in mid-June at ‘Casablanca’, the last oil platform in Spain located in the waters around the coast of Tarragona. The new Spanish Climate Change and Energy Transition Law contemplates that Spain will no longer grant new exploration authorisations, so this shutdown of Casablanca is a step towards this purpose. In 2018, the hydrocarbon field of La Lora in Burgos, the oldest oil field in Spain operating since 1964, was already forced to close.
BancaMarch | Brussels has upgraded Spain’s GDP growth forecast. The Commission’s new forecasts put Spain’s GDP growth at 5.9% in 2021 (5.6% previous estimate) and 6.8% in 2022 (5.3% previous estimate). So Spain would regain pre-pandemic GDP levels by end-next year. The improvement in the revision is a consequence of progress in vaccination and the disbursement of European funds, of which Spain is one of the major beneficiaries. To this…
Pep Ruiz (BBVA Research) | The US economy’s stimulus plan, with a fiscal stimulus that can exceed 12 pp of US GDP, which could increase Spain’s GDP by 0.2 pp and 0.9 pp this year and next year respectively.
T.C. | Next Thursday, 22 April, in Cartagena (Murcia), King Felipe VI will preside over the launch of the S-81 Isaac Peral, the first submarine built by Spain alone (until now the development costs were shared with other countries, with France in the case of the latest submarines), which will be sponsored by his daughter Leonor, Princess of Asturias and heir to the throne.
T.C. | Eduardo Abenojar, president of the Restaurant and Nightlife Association of Salou (a small tourist town 100 km from Barcelona, considered the capital of the Costa Dorada) began a hunger strike yesterday at 12.30 pm to ask the Generalitat to reopen his business because “we have neither help nor hope”.
T.C. | Faced with the impossibility of reaching a sufficient parliamentary agreement (it requires an agreement with the opposition) to renew the members of the General Council of the Judiciary, which has been in office for two years, the coalition government of the PSOE and UP passed a rapid reform that ties the Council’s hands and feet and prevents it from making appointments while it is in office. Thus, it is a Council “in functions” but unable to function.
T.C.| The large Spanish hotel chains are seeking liquidity by selling assets and are opting for the ‘sale & leaseback’ option to maintain management. According to Meliá’s director of real estate, Mark Hoddinott, the group is identifying assets worth between 150 and 200 million. NH, the Spanish chain controlled by the Thai group Minor, is also considering the sale and leaseback of several hotels. According to Moody’s, the group expects to generate more than 200 million in additional cash. RIU, a partner of the German group TUI, has three hotels for sale: in Madeira (Portugal), Lanzarote (Spain) and Panama with a combined valuation of around 250 million euros.