Business

The Catalan airline Vueling, based in Barcelona, increased by 16.2% the number of flights compared to a year ago. The airline has defied the Spanish market trend with an increase in its global volume of passengers by nearly 19%. Vueling attributes this increase to a growth in the company’s activity and a rise in its flight occupation rate, which reached 75.5%.

The Catalan pharmaceutical company Grifols, the third world leader in the production of blood plasma based technologies, has seen its turnover increase by 15% in the first half of 2012 to €1.32 billion. Its net profit for the first half of 2012 was €133.5 million, seven times that of the previous year. The company’s success is attributed to its wide geographical consumer base and the recent purchase of US based Talecris Plasma Resources.

Unemployment has fallen by 15,400 people in Catalonia during the second quarter according to the latest Labour Force Survey published this Friday by the National Statistics Institute. The overall totals indicate that 821,600 of the working population in Catalonia are unemployed at a rate of 20.95%, 130,700 more than a year ago. The state total shows an increase in unemployment in the second quarter, bringing Spain’s total to 5.7 million people without work, 24.6% of the working population. With nearly a quarter of the working population unemployed, the figures are higher than the historical record reached in 1994 during the last crisis.

Barcelona is overcoming the effects of the economic crisis. So says, the President of Tourism of Barcelona, Joan Gaspart, who revealed spending by tourists in Barcelona in 2011 came to on average 741 euros, 124 euros more than in 2010. In the first six months of 2012, the number of tourists has increased by 1.69%, overnight stays by 2.26%, and credit card spending has increased by 27.08%, compared to the same period of 2011. Gaspart stressed that these increases, although "modest", show that the industry "is doing a good job" to the point where predictions given for the second half of the year also indicate an improvement.

A combination of Spain’s economic predictions and Valencia’s formal request to the central government for financial assistance shook the markets on Friday, despite the stringent the austerity measures passed this week and the approved deal to lend up to 100bn euros to the Spanish banking sector. The Spanish government expects an unemployment rate of 24.3% and a fall in GDP of -0.5% in 2013, expecting to be out recession by 2014 and 2015 with a GDP growth of +1.2% and 1.9% respectively. The Valencian Government has requested assistance from the Spanish Government, making it the first autonomous community to ask for emergency financing from the regional liquidity fund.

Ryanair, the low cost Irish airline, announced this Friday the closure of four flights from Barcelona due to the rising costs approved by the Spanish government and imposed by the AENA, the institution responsible for Spanish airports and aerial navigation. Ryanair has also cancelled eleven flights in Madrid, including a service from Girona. Michael O’Leary, the Chief Executive of Ryanair, announced that the services will stop from November. Barcelona Airport will lose connections to the East Midlands, Leeds Bradford, Hamburg and Trieste.

The Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias has finished a seven-day visit to China. The aim of the trip was to promote Barcelona’s economy and attract new foreign investment in the Catalan capital. The Mayor spoke of the trip in a very positive light, pointing out the economic potential of Barcelona and highlighting the Chinese companies’ appreciation for the opportunity to invest in Barcelona.

Illegal street sales, colloquially called in Catalonia ‘top manta’, is a daily problem that police and councils face and find difficult to solve. This non authorized business has a turnover of about €100 million per year. Coinciding with the beginning of the tourist season, the Confederation of Commerce of Catalonia (CCC) has started a new campaign called ‘Estirem de la manta’ (‘Pull the blanket’) to deal with this irregular practice. The objective: to raise awareness of the social and economic harm of this illegal activity with tourists and natives in order to tackle the problem. The CCC estimates that there are about 2,500 people currently working in this prohibited business in Catalonia.

The British financial news publication has also awarded the Spanish Santander the ‘Best Bank in the World 2012’. Euromoney emphasised CaixaBank’s fiancial solvency and its strong growth over the previous years.

Catalan companies sold more goods and services abroad than they did to the rest of Spain in 2011. 52.9% of all Catalonia’s external sales were made abroad, while 47.1% were made to the rest of Spain. In addition, it is the first time that Catalonia has registered a positive balance of trade.

Sales of industrial goods to non-EU markets increased by 28% between January and March. Catalan industry reached a record in 2011 by exporting €55.19 billion in goods. However, the sector continues to lose jobs, which makes it more competitive in return. Also, industrial investment increased by 2.4% in 2011.

Up to 200 enterprises and 3.000 video-game professionals are attending the Gamelab Fair, an international event specialized in this sector. The main videogame companies in Catalonia have announced during the occasion that they are uniting to grow internationally and attract foreign investment.

Choosing between these two rival cities to build the macro complex of hotels, casinos and business centres is “very difficult”, according to the Chief Operating Officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, Michael Leven, who visited Barcelona on Monday and Madrid on Tuesday

The Catalan company has promoted its presence in BRIC countries and has achieved two consecutive years of profits therefore recovering from the effects of the explosion of the property bubble

From October 15th to 17th, Barcelona will host Seafood, the largest show in southern Europe in the field of marketing fishing products. In its first edition, the show will feature nearly 300 exhibitors, 40% of them international, as well as many representatives of exhibiting companies and processors of seafood.