market

The most unique edition of the historic festive market is underway until December 23

Last year 87,000 jobs were created and unemployment rate dropped from 11.7% twelve months previously

The final month of the year always brings about wonderful Christmas activities to enjoy, here's our picks of what to do in December in Catalonia

It's time to prepare for the holidays, and fairs and markets all over the country offer everything needed for the festive season

On November 23 and 24, Barcelona university's historic building became a Catalan version of Hogwarts magic school

The unique event, a cross between a market and a cultural festival, celebrates 10 years in the heart of the city of Igualada

Already in its 20th edition, MEDIMED boasts a catalogue of over 500 films searching for greater promotion and distribution

Some need half of salary to pay for housing costs, which are expected to slightly decrease

The Caganer nativity scene figurine is an established tradition which is also reinvented every year to reflect politics and pop culture

The traditionally red holiday plant often loses some color when imported from Almería in Spain or as far as Holland

Work on 80 million euro restoration project in heart of Barcelona finally complete

Flower sales expected to increase some 25% compared to last year, due to holiday being during the week

London’s Borough Market hosted the celebration of Sant Jordi’s Day in the British capital. Like all over Catalonia, stalls selling books and roses colored one of the most iconic spots in the city, complete with Catalan food tasting, storytelling, traditional human towers (Castellers) and a mix of both Catalan and English folklore. The Delegation of the Catalan Government to the UK and Ireland, together with the Catalan community in the UK, the Tourism Office, and Institut Ramon Llull London, which promotes Catalan culture and literature, also took part in the celebrations and had their own stalls at the market. 

The number of unemployed people in Catalonia dropped to 552,500 people in the third quarter of 2016, representing a decrease of 51,100 people in relation to the second quarter, according to the latest Active Population Survey (EPA). The unemployment rate fell to 14.63%, the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2008. The environment of economic recovery, with record numbers in the tourism sector, led to the creation of about 42,700 new jobs, the largest number ever recorded in any of the seventeen regions of Spain. Catalonia closed the third quarter with 3.2 million employed people, a 3.64% increase over the previous year, and was the community with the highest number of people employed, ahead of Madrid (with 2.8 million).

Mind the Byte, a Catalan company dedicated to computational drug design, will enter the bioinformatics market in Japan, thanks to a distribution agreement with the Japanese company Filgen. This agreement came after several meetings between the companies during a mission of the public business competitiveness and internationalisation agency ACCIÓ in Japan last year. The founder and CEO of Mind the Byte, Alfons Nonell-Canals, stated that this step is important as the overall bioinformatics market in Japan “is expected to grow 21% by 2020”. The company estimates that it will have an annual turnover of €1.2 million in Japan by 2020, “a very large and mature market in the field of biotechnology”. "We are small and we are in a phase of development but Japan is a key country", said Nonell-Canals.