Business

Neither ‘Brexit’ nor the lack of a government in Spain seem to have affected the progress of the Catalan economy, which registered 3.5% growth at the end of the second quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year. According to figures released this Thursday by the Catalan Finance Ministry and the Catalan Statistics Institute (Idescat), the pace of growth in  the second quarter was 0.8% in terms of GDP, the same figure registered in the previous quarter. Regarding the economic sectors, industry registered the highest growth, even higher than the Eurozone average. Considering these figures, the forecasts for the whole of 2016 made by the Catalan Department for Economy may have to be revised upwards, since in May the body estimated a 2.9% growth for the whole year.

The Port of Barcelona continues to break records. During the first half of 2016, the number of containers handled, a reliable indicator of economic activity, exceeded one million, the best figure ever registered for a six-month period. This represents a growth of 13% in comparison to the same period last year, according to Port de Barcelona’s President, Sixte Cambra. Freight traffic in the Port of Barcelona made up a total of 24.2 million tonnes, which is 4% more than the same period last year and the amount of exports grew by 54% in comparison to the record figure registered in 2008. According to Cambra, these figures “consolidate the recovery of freight traffic and accelerate the figures of the Port of Barcelona’s activity”.

Health organisations in Catalonia received 43.5 MEUR from the EU Horizon 2020 programme to fund projects in this field between 2014 and 2015. This amount represents 42.5% of the total allocated by this European initiative to the Spanish State, according to figures released this Friday by the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), a public business entity which belongs to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Madrid is second on the ranking, with 25.6 MEUR received, followed by the Valencian Community, which got 8.2 MEUR. The Catalan Department for Health has stated that it considers these figures to prove “Catalonia’s clear leadership in health research”.

The 21st edition of the Investment Forum, organised by the public business competitiveness and internationalisation agency ACCIÓ, gathered together 700 entrepreneurs and investors in order to find funding and boost new business projects. This Thursday, at the opening of the Forum, Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, emphasised “the need to build a Catalan network of entrepreneurship” based on the “international synergies” that emerge from events such as the Mobile World Congress and the Smart City Fair. According to Baiget, Catalonia is an international pole for entrepreneurs recognised worldwide and it is necessary to keep on working in other to consolidate it. The Catalan Minister also praised Catalans’ entrepreneurial ability, as they captured 800 MEUR in ‘venture capital’ projects in 2015.

There were 20,145 fewer unemployed this past June in Catalonia in relation to the previous month, which sets the total number of unemployed at 450,060. Although unemployment usually falls in June, due to seasonal contracts and summer sales, the figure registered this year is situated in numbers not seen since December 2008. With this decline, Catalonia has now registered three consecutive years of declining unemployment in annual terms and June represents the fifth consecutive month in which the unemployment rate has decreased. Catalonia leads the unemployment decline in Spain, where the total number of people unemployed is now 3,767,054, the second lowest figure in the historic series. 

The Recreational and Tourist Centre of Vila-seca and Salou, the project which was originally named ‘BCN World’, will start to be built in summer 2017. The resort will be located between these two villages – Vila-seca and Salou – on the Costa Daurada, near PortAventura theme park. After numerous reorganisations and changes in the legislation, the project’s hotel surface area will decrease by 29.2% in comparison with the urban plan approved in 2015. The surface area designated for gambling and amusement activities will ultimately be 30,000 m² instead of 60,000 m². The surface area for commercial use and that designated for theatres and congresses has been kept the same. Thus, the total surface area of the project will be 750,000 m² rather than 1,000,000m². The project is expected to receive €2,500 million in private investment and will generate 10,000 jobs when fully operational.

The leading e-commerce company plans to generate 1,500 jobs within three years of the opening of its new logistics centre, expected by autumn 2017. Amazon’s new infrastructure, which will have a surface area equivalent to that of 8 football pitches, will be located in El Prat de Llobregat, the same village where Barcelona El Prat airport is located, a municipality 10 kilometres away from Barcelona. The decision to expand its operations in the region is “not casual”, stated Amazon Spain Fulfilment’s Director of Operations, Fred Pattje and emphasised different assets besides El Prat airport such as Barcelona’s Port and “the economic sectors around the Llobregat delta”.

Seven Catalan start-ups are in London this week for London Technology Week. Finanzarel, Captio, TECH4FIN, Private Network Investments, Capital cell, ECrowd Invest and Social Currencies Management are in the mission organised by the public business competitiveness and internationalisation agency ACCIÓ. Heading the event is Núria Betriu, Director of Industry of the Catalan Department for Business and Knowledge. She will hold meetings with the Government of Wales and visit British companies and investment funds, as well as present at the event Barcelona's Upcoming Tech Scene: New Horizons in Catalonia. The start-ups will participate in individual meetings and networking activities among other things, in order to experience first-hand one of the ecosystems with the most private and alternative investment culture at an international level.

Catalonia would be the eleventh country in the EU in terms of exports if it were to become independent, and would be ahead of Austria, Denmark and Finland. Catalan companies’ exports to the rest of Spain and to the whole of the EU represent 47.7% of Catalonia's GDP, which is 14 percentage points higher than the EU average (33.2%). 2015 marked a new record for Catalan exports, reaching 102,487 million euros and Catalan companies which export regularly already represent 34.4% of the Spanish figure overall. Regarding exports per capita, an independent Catalonia will rank ninth, with 13,650 euros, ahead of France, United Kingdom and Portugal. These figures were released by the public business competitiveness and internationalisation agency, ACCIÓ.   

Emirates airline is bringing the airplane with the highest passenger capacity in the world to El Prat airport in the Catalan capital. Specifically, the plane will pass through Barcelona on the 25^th of June and on the 16^th, 29^th, and 31^st of July. It can hold 615 passengers, of which 557 will go in economy and 58 will be sat in business class, stated the CEO of Emirates in Spain, Fernando Suárez de Góngora, during lunch with the media on Wednesday. The airplane, which is a modified (to be able to hold as many passengers as possible) A-380, will use Barcelona’s international tourism as its asset: “it is a promising sign, and we are convinced it will be filled completely”, stated Góngora. Although it has apparently been “a real challenge”, according to the CEO, to completely fill the flights, Barcelona is becoming a more popular tourist destination in Asia in general and “in the Middle East in particular”. 

13 Catalan SMEs have been selected by the London Stock Exchange among the 1,000 most inspiring in Europe. This 1,000-component list is comprised of small and medium companies that “have a more pronounced growth in the EU”, explained the Director of Government Relations at the London Stock Exchange, Xavier Solano. The report was presented in Brussels, and the event was attended by two of the selected Catalan SMEs, KpSport and Liquats Vegetals. This project should help small and medium companies receive funding, which has “always been a little difficult”, according to Director of Operations at KpSport, David Pons. Solano spoke about the importance of giving these SMEs “visibility and support” so that they can continue to create jobs, also recognising the importance of presenting the report to the European Parliament. Additionally, liberal CDC MEP Ramon Tremosa emphasises “the importance of promoting the initiative on a European level.”

Alstom, a French developer and marketer of systems, equipment and services for the railway sector, is to hire one hundred new people for the first time in many years. These new employees will work at the Santa Perpètua de Mogoda plant (in the Vallès Occidental area, next to Barcelona), and the contracts will begin to be made from September 2016 until the end of the year. These posts will be added to the already existing 550 direct employees and 250 indirect jobs. The President of Alstom Spain, Antonio Moreno, stated that another novelty is a 30,000-metre-square park for suppliers, in which suppliers can interact with the process, which will become more streamlined. Moreno also explained that workload is guaranteed for the coming two years, and the company already works on transport systems in many foreign countries. By 2017, Alstom will also be more digitalised, utilising tools such as tablets and virtual reality.

Carbon dioxide emissions by Catalan companies subject to EU regulation grew by 4% between 2013 and 2014, according to the report entitled “The Situation of the Worldwide Emissions of CO2”, and published by the Business and Climate Foundation, an organisation that works for an entrepreneur agreement on the fight against climate change. The figure is lower than the Spanish one, which increased by 7.2%. It is the first year that CO2 emissions have grown after many years of declining figures in Catalonia and one of the explanations given for the phenomenon by the author of the report, Arturo De las Heras, is the “reactivation of the economy after the closure of companies during recent years and the associated decrease in production”. Catalan companies emitted 13.5 million tons of CO2, which puts Catalonia in fourth place in the ranking among other Spanish regions, after Andalusia, Asturias and Galicia. 

Exports in high technology from Catalonia have increased by 4.2% year-on-year, according to the data of a report published by the Catalan Institute of Statistics (Idescat) on Monday. Sales of high-level technology (10.4% of foreign sales) and medium-level technology have also increased in the first quarter of 2016. However, according to Idescat, other levels have decreased in terms of foreign sales. Industrial products of medium-low technological level and those of low technological level both fell in the first quarter of 2016. Geographically, EU-28 exports show a positive performance in high- and medium-high-level technology, while other levels decreased. As for imports, medium-high technology is creating the highest numbers with a 7.2% year-on-year increase, followed by low-technology imports and high-technology imports; imports of technology of medium level have however decreased. 

Unemployment has fallen again in Catalonia, with the number of people registered on the unemployment lists of the Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC)  recorded as 470,205 people, 15,918 fewer than in April, according to the Ministry of Employment and Social Security. This is the fourth consecutive month of decline in unemployment for Catalonia, showing numbers that have not been seen since January of 2009, seven years ago, before the economic crisis. In annual terms, there has been a decrease in unemployment by 61,694 people, and 35 consecutive months of annual decreases have now been recorded; additionally, these figures represent the largest drop ever recorded in absolute numbers since the beginning of the records in 1996. Specifically, the services sector saw the most significant decline in unemployment. In Spain as a whole, unemployment has also dropped, to 3,891,403 registered people.