Business

After not having found the needed private investors to meet the required levels of core capital, the Bank of Spain’s Governor announced that the Spanish State would intervene in four savings banks, including two from Catalonia. The State will control 100% of Unnim and 90% of CatalunyaCaixa. Once the banks are streamlined, private investors will be offered shares. The European Commission has authorised the operation. Now, all Spain’s banks and savings banks have at least 8% core capital. Considering the global banking sector restructuring in Spain, the Spanish State has spent 19,000 million euros from the public finances.

Barcelona-based CaixaBank, the private bank of ‘La Caixa’, will pay 16 million euros for the purchase of both businesses. Bankpime is a bank for small and medium-sized companies. CaixaBank will control a total volume of 1,200 million euros. CaixaBank will buy Bankpime’s credit investment portfolio -which is worth 363 million euros-, the fund management business –with some 400 million euros traded, the 19 branches of the bank, and client deposits worth some 436 million euros.

The Catalan airline wants to consolidate its hub at Barcelona Airport. Spanair, partially owned by the Catalan Government, plans to transform Barcelona El Prat into an international hub in its own right.

Sales abroad accumulate 19 consecutive months of two digit increases compared to the same period last year. In July, exports increased by 14% in relation to July 2010. The export sector is becoming the main engine of the Catalan economy, together with tourism.

The Port of Barcelona registered a record in the number of containers destined to international exports. China has consolidated its position as the main destination of containers departing from Barcelona. In addition, the number of cruisers boomed by 17% in the first eight months of the year compared to the same period last year.

1.9 million foreign tourists visited Catalonia in August, representing a 2.9% increase on the same month in 2010. Catalonia hosted almost a quarter of all international tourists visiting Spain. The number of international visitors who came to Spain in August increased 9.4% compared to last year, totalling 7.64 million.

The car is inspired by the car ‘Up!’ that Volkswagen presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Car manufacturer SEAT is based in Greater Barcelona, which is the main automobile cluster in Spain.

Brussels believes it is "unlikely" to relapse into a second recession but warned that the possibility "can not be excluded". The European Commission has not lowered its growth forecast for Spain or the whole of the Euro area despite the financial turbulences of the last weeks.

The inter-annual rate shows four consecutive months of price decline which has not been seen since November 2008.

The Barcelona-based energy multinational and the Catalan Government have signed a cooperative agreement. The Catalan President Artur Mas emphasised that the Catalan multinational “is rising to what the country needs” in the current economic context.

Within the whole Spanish state, property transactions collapse by nearly 41%, while the average value of each house increases every month

The airport is the largest in Catalonia and one of the most important in Europe. The requirement for competing companies is extensive experience in airport management and significant financial stability

A total of 584,648 people have ended up on the Public Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC) list of registered unemployed, representing an increase of 13,779 people, 2.41% more in relation to in July this year.

Country house visitors with Spanish nationality decrease by 4% while the number of foreigners visiting these rural establishments increases by nearly 8%.

In the current times of crisis within the real state market, money from Russian tourists is particularly noticeable. Rich Russian citizens come to Tarragona’s Costa Daurada to buy houses close to the seashore. Their search is on for "exclusive homes'' with attached land to use them as summer houses or as a base to permanently relocate to. When not using the house, they may rent them.