catalan economy

Throughout this week the Fira de Barcelona's Montjuic exhibition venue in the Catalan capital is transformed into a business fair for start-ups and entrepreneurs. The BizBarcelona event takes place on Wednesday the 4^th and Thursday the 5^th of June and is the second edition of this innovative business fair. The event serves several purposes and contains as many as six different areas including e-commerce, the financial markets, exports, franchises, business consulting as well as cooperation and networking. The event offers various opportunities for established and future entrepreneurs. BizBarcelona is a welcome initiative. First quarter financial reports revealed a decrease in bankruptcy proceedings, and with a high unemployment rate in Catalonia and Spain it is hoped that these new companies can create jobs.

Registered unemployment in Catalonia has dropped to 592,304 people at the end of May 2014: the first time the figure has fallen below the 600,000 mark since August 2011. According to figures released by the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security, between May 2013 and May 2014, registered unemployment dropped by 7.76 %, a reduction of 49,862 people. In only one month, unemployment decreased by 19,518 people from April to May, a 3.19 % drop. This has been the greatest monthly decrease recorded in May for 18 years. Furthermore, Catalonia has also experienced the greatest fall in unemployment of any Autonomous Community in Spain this last May, followed by the Region of Madrid.

The Catalan industrial sector received €1.365 billion of direct foreign investment in 2013, the highest amount since 2005, according to Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce. This represents 52% of the total foreign investment in Spain’s industrial sector in 2013, while Catalonia represents around 19% of Spanish GDP. Across all sectors Catalonia received a total of €3.51 billion of foreign investment last year, 31% more than in 2012. In addition, the President of the Chamber, Miquel Valls, emphasized that foreign investment in Catalonia went mostly to the industrial sector and advanced services, while in the rest of Spain it mostly went to the recreational and real estate sectors. According to Valls, this indicates that international investors have identified Catalonia with “a new production model”, while this has not happened in the rest of Spain.

Exports from companies based in Catalonia reached €14.69 billion during the first 3 months of 2014, a 4.1% increase on the same period of 2013. Catalan exports stagnated in 2013 on 2012 figures, with 0.1% growth, after a few years of significant increase. The figures from the first quarter of 2014 point towards a recovery of export growth, mostly thanks to the month of March, when exports grew by 7.8% compared to the same month of 2013. In the whole of Spain, exports increased by 3.2% in the first quarter and Catalonia represented 25.2% of total Spanish exports. The chemical industry accounted for 27.6% of Catalan exports, followed by capital goods and the car industry. 65.4% of Catalonia’s exports went to European Union markets, while exports to Asia accounted for 9%.

Sales of residential real state in Catalonia increased by 42.8% in March compared to the same month in 2013, according to data released on Tuesday by the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE). In the whole of Spain, housing sales grew by 22.8% in the same period, with 27,047 transactions. In Catalonia, 3,944 residential units were sold: 1,267 were newly-built houses (32.12%) while the remaining 2,677 were second-hand (67.88%). 3,567 (90.44%) were open market while the remaining 377 (9.56%) were subsidised housing units. Catalonia is the Autonomous Community with the second highest percentage increase in sales, coming after the Balearic Islands, which registered 71% increase.

The Catalan economy grew by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2014, which means that GDP has been increasing for the last 4 consecutive quarters, leaving recession far behind, according to an early estimate published on Monday by Catalonia’s Statistics Institute (Idescat) and the Catalan Ministry of the Economy and Knowledge. Furthermore, between March 2013 and March 2014, Catalonia’s economy grew by 0.8%. In the second quarter of 2013 it registered a quarterly growth of 0.1%; in the third it also posted a 0.1% quarterly growth; between October and December, it increased by 0,2%; and now, between January and March, it grew by 0.4%. The services sector has been the main engine behind this positive trend; in the last 12 months it grew by 1.4%.

This weekend the Formula 1 World Championship comes to Catalonia once again thanks to a long tradition which blends the motor industry and competition. Catalonia has several industries related to cars and motorbikes. Aside from SEAT, Nissan, Honda and Rieju are important factories that supply components worldwide. Catalonia plays host to a packed motor sports calendar. The Formula 1 Grand Prix, the GP Motorbike Grand Prix, the World Rally Championship all take place in Catalonia among other endurance series, classic races and indoor or outdoor motorbikes championships. Moreover, Catalan drivers are competing in a lot of international categories. For instance, last year the three Motorcycle World Champions – Marc Márquez, Pol Espargaró and Maverick Viñales - were all Catalans.

In April, 12,645 jobseekers left the Catalan Public Employment Service's lists, which is the sharpest unemployment reduction for an April month since 1998. At the end of April there were 611,822 people registered as unemployed in Catalonia, a 2% drop on March figures and a 6.88% reduction compared to April 2013. This 6.88% annual drop is also the sharpest since June 2000. Furthermore, in annual terms, registered unemployment has been decreasing in Catalonia for the last 10 consecutive months, although April is traditionally a good month for employment due to the new contracts linked to Easter holidays. In the whole of Spain, registered unemployment decreased by 111,565, representing a 2.33% drop and leaving the total number of registered jobseekers at 4,684,301. In annual terms, it dropped by 6.11%, being the 7^th consecutive month with annual reductions.

At the end of March there were 840,200 unemployed people in Catalonia, 600 more than in December. This quarterly increase breaks the trend of 3 consecutive quarters with unemployment drops in Catalonia and puts the unemployment rate at 22.10%. However, in annual terms, Catalan unemployment was reduced by 108,800 on March 2013 figures, when the rate reached 24.45%. Unemployment has not decreased in annual terms in the first quarter of the year since 2007. The most negative news is the number of jobs lost between January and March 2014. In the first quarter of the year, 38,100 jobs were lost in Catalonia, 10,000 more than in the same period of 2013. In the whole of Spain, 184,600 jobs were lost between January and March 2014 and the unemployment rate reached 25.93%.

Mariano Rajoy, Prime Minister of Spain, and Artur Mas, President of the Catalan Government, both attended a business forum in Barcelona on Thursday. However, their attendance did not coincide at the event, since Rajoy did not come to hear Mas' speech and the Catalan President did not wait for the arrival of the Spanish PM. Both politicians were making visible the lack of dialogue between them regarding Catalonia's self-determination demands. In recent weeks, Rajoy has been repeating his demand that Mas give up the intention to organise a self-determination vote totally as the sine-qua-non condition for him to start talking. However, Mas considers Rajoy's condition "an imposition" and demonstrating a lack of political will, since Rajoy refuses to discuss the issue a majority of Catalans want to talk about.

CataloniaVotes.eu is a new website set up to present the independence referendum, related news, a chronology of the last few years and facts about Catalan society, culture and economy to a foreign audience. The new webpage is in English, French and German and will also follow the day-to-day evolution of the referendum process, a consultation vote scheduled for the 9^th November. It has been launched by the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat), an organisation backed by the Catalan Government, the four Provincial Councils, universities, chambers of commerce, the main business-owner associations, trade unions, FC Barcelona and other public and private institutions.

In the first two months of 2014 exports by Catalan companies increased by 2.2% on the same period last year, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Spanish Ministry for the Economy and Competitiveness. In fact, Catalan companies were behind 25.3% of all exports from Spain. Spain's exports in January and February reached €37.76 billion, a 4% increase on figures from the same period last year. In addition, the amount reached in the first two months of 2014 represents an historical record. The main industries behind those numbers are food, drinks, and tobacco, as well as manufacturing and automation.  The main markets for Spanish products were the UK, Portugal, the United States and Germany.

The Port of Barcelona handled 10.7 million tons of goods during the first 3 months of 2014, which represents a 9% increase on the same period last year. Between January and March, all the types of transported goods posted a significant growth, and the same trend applies to the traffic of passengers, which grew by 9%. In the first quarter of the year, the number of vehicles transported grew by 5%, as did the number of containers, which reached 428,720 TEU. Container imports increased by 7% and exports by 3%. Container exports grew particularly to countries such as China (+31%), the United States (+17%), Morocco (+35%) and Mexico (+87%). The traffic of bulk liquids increased by 24%, particularly diesel and other fuel, as well as chemical products.

Paul Allen, who founded Microsoft together with Bill Gates, has invested $40 million in the Barcelona-based Scytl, which is present in 35 countries and is one of the most innovative e-voting companies at world level. Allen will join Scytl's shareholders through his investment fund Vulcan Capital. Vulcan Capital's Manager Abhishek Agrawal will join the Catalan company's Board. Agrawal praised Scytl's "key role" in upgrading electoral processes in cooperation with governments throughout the world. In fact, in the last 10 years the Catalan company has carried out e-voting commissions in the US, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, France, Norway, Switzerland, Bosnia, India, Iceland and Australia. Since 2006 the company led by Pere Vallès has made profits and grown by 70% each year.

At the end of March 2014 there were 39,583 fewer jobseekers in Catalonia than twelve month earlier, which represents a 5.96% drop. It is the sharpest drop since June 2000. In addition, registered unemployment in Catalonia has been decreasing in annual terms for the last 9 consecutive months. On top of this, it is the third consecutive unemployment decline registered in a month of March. After this drop, the total number of people registered as unemployed at the Catalan Public Employment Service (SOC) was 624,467 people. In monthly terms, there were 5,119 fewer jobseekers at the end of March than in February. The fall in monthly terms is the sharpest registered in this month of the year since March 2005, before the economic crisis.