Business

Foreign tourists generated a record amount of revenue last year. The number of visitors also grew by 5.7% in 2011, according to the Catalan Government. Furthermore, Catalonia’s stand at Europe’s most important tourist fair, FITUR, has been declared the best in the current campaign.

The President of Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce hopes others will join them by adopting a model that combines both public and private cooperation to offer companies new services such as a fund of €2 billion for loans or access to a world network of 1,500 chambers of commerce. With this new model, the Chamber wants to leave the past two years of budget cuts behind, focus on the future, be more useful to its members and offer added value services.

The Catalan airline will invest €325 million in increasing the number of destinations and frequency of its flights from Barcelona El Prat Airport. Vueling will base 28 planes at Barcelona, after having bought 5 new aircraft. These initiatives demonstrate that Vueling continues with a strategy to consolidate Barcelona Airport as “a true hub” for intercontinental flights. The Catalan airline expects that up to 2 million of its passengers will change flights at Barcelona.

The Irish low cost airline, Ryanair, has announced it will transport 3 million passengers through the Girona-Costa Brava Airport, where it will operate a total of 59 routes. Ryanair’s Vice President, Michael Cawley, explained that after a long negotiation process an agreement has been reached with the Catalan Government. “It’s not 100% our agreement, it’s not 100% the Government’s agreement, so it’s probably a good agreement” he said ironically. Ryanair and the Catalan Government have been arguing over the last year about the airline’s presence in Girona and Reus airports.

Hoteliers around Catalonia faced a difficult Christmas tourist season with occupancy rates that were below 50% in some areas. The only exceptions could be found in areas where snow attracted skiers, such as Val d’Aran and adjacent counties. In those areas there was an occupancy rate of between 70% and 85%. Rural tourism suffered its poorest results and does not forecast a recovery for 2012.

At the end of 2011 there were 614,244 people registered as unemployed in Catalonia, 9.17% more than a year ago. However, unemployment dropped in December by 1,425 people, after it stabilised in November, leaving September and October as the worst months of the year. In stark contrast to Catalonia, the rest of Spain experienced an increase in unemployment in December and 2011 ended with 4,422,359 people signing on the register, 7.86% more than at the end of 2010.

Car sales drastically decreased last year, with the only exception being luxury vehicles. Less than 120,000 cars were sold in Catalonia, a figure similar to that of 1993. In Spain as a whole, car sales fell by 17.7%.

The current authority of five cruise ship terminals at the Port of Barcelona will manage the Asian terminal from 2012. The new Singapore terminal will handle the biggest cruises in Southeast Asia, with ships up to 300 metres long and with a capacity of 6,000 passengers

Despite a 4.6% reduction in revenue, the Finance Department has been able to cut spending by €283 million when compared to 2010. The government had a deficit of €3.798 billion in the eleventh month of the year, equivalent to 1.9% of GDP. The aim of the Catalan Government is to close 2011 with a 2.66% budget deficit.

Prices have increased by 3% over the past 12 months. This represents a fall in the annual inflation rate compared to that registered in October (3.1%). In Spain as a whole, November’s annual inflation rate was set at 2.9%. The decrease in the price of medication and fuel is behind the slight annual price reduction. However, in Catalonia the monthly inflation rate increased in November by 0.4% compared to those registered in October, mainly due to an increase in the price of clothes.

Catalan CaixaBank (La Caixa's private bank) will need €630 million while Banco Santander will be the bank with the highest capital requirement with €15.3 billion euros. The European Bank Authority (EBA) has tightened the core capital requirements and increased the limit up to 9% which forces European Union banks to recapitalise with €114.685 billion.

Discouraging hotel occupancy rates and low commercial trade during this year’s Puríssima holiday clearly display the effects of the financial crisis in Catalonia and the whole of Spain. The Catalan tourism sector senses that a change has taken place in the profile of visitors to the territory. They generally come from nearby areas, look for offers on the Internet and wait until the last minute to make reservations.

The wine sector foresees an increase of cava and wine consumption in Spain and Catalonia, as well as in the foreign market, during the upcoming Christmas holidays. The price adjustment, one of the measures used to fight the financial crisis, will help to sell one million more bottles compared to the same period last year, however producers predict purchases to be last minute.

With this operation, the Catalan Banc Sabadell becomes Spain’s fifth largest banking group. The Bank of Spain has decided to accept Banc Sabadell’s offer to purchase the CAM, a savings bank that was rescued and restructured. Banc Sabadell buys CAM after the savings bank completed a €5.25 billion regularisation process to balance its books. Banc Sabadell will take on 20% of the expected losses over the next ten years from CAM’s real estate properties.

IESE has been ranked the fourth best business school in Europe in 2011 and ESADE the seventh. Both Catalan education centres have improved their positions since last year’s FT ranking.