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In times of economic crisis, the Mariano Rajoy-led Spanish Government has been making recentralisation a main driver of its political agenda, using the economic recovery as the reason for passing the reforms. An additional step in this direction was taken on Monday with a new regulation forcing Spanish Autonomous Communities to seek permission from the Spanish Ministry of Finance before granting loans and guarantees to private companies located in their territories. From now on, Madrid's permission will be conditional upon the applicant's compliance with deficit targets. The new regulation substantially curbs the Autonomies' powers to shape their industrial policies, following a reform passed in May that modifies both the Organic Law for Financing the Autonomous Communities and the Organic Law on Budgetary Stability and Financial Sustainability.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reviewed and improved its economic growth forecasts for Spain, going from a 2.5% growth rate for 2015 forecast in April to a 3.1% one foreseen this June, and from 2% to 2.5% for 2016. However, the IMF has also issued recommendations and warnings, emphasising that Spain will have to carry out "additional fiscal efforts" and "structural reforms" in order not to jeopardise the country’s economic recovery. The IMF recommends that Spain reduce the costs of public healthcare and education by making users pay for part of the services. According to the international organisation, Autonomous Community governments – such as Catalonia's – should have greater fiscal responsibilities in such systems since they exclusively manage them. In this vein, the IMF has praised the fiscal consolidation efforts undertaken over the past few years by regional governments and has asked for an increase in their funding and fiscal powers, as well as for the adapting of the deficit targets to their needs.

The leadership of the Christian-Democrat party UDC supports Catalonia's self-determination but it is against full independence; it supports the creation of a Catalan State with greater powers than it currently has while remaining within Spain, which should embrace its plurinational nature and become a confederal country. However, an important part of UDC's base does support independence and has been trying to force an open debate and consultation on it within the party, in order to set the official party stance on this issue. Currently, the leadership's vision represents UDC's traditional stance on this issue, but the party does not have an official stance on independence yet. This situation has provoked tensions within the small party but also with their allies for the last three-and-a-half decades, the Liberal party CDC, which is the largest force within the two-party coalition CiU that currently runs the Catalan Government. UDC announced an internal consultation on 14 June to fix the party's definitive stance on this debate. However, the leadership has presented a question that avoids independence; a formulation that has created quite some controversy among UDC members.

Last month Catalonia was where the most intense monthly and annual drops in unemployment were registered in Spain. At the end of May, 531,899 people were on the Catalan Public Employment Service's (SOC) lists. This means 21,075 fewer jobseekers than in April 2015 (-3.81%), representing the most significant monthly drop registered for the month of May for 19 years (when the historical record started). Catalonia also registered a 10.2% annual drop in unemployment in comparison to May 2014 - representing 60,405 fewer people unemployed - the biggest annual decline since May 2000. It is has now accumulated 23 consecutive months of annual decline. In Spain as a whole, at the end of May 2015, the number of people registered as unemployed stood at 4.21 million, with 117,985 less jobseekers than in April 2015. An encouraging sign given that in the last 7 years registered unemployment had been falling at an average of 58,000 people from April to May.

Messi (2) and Neymar score as FC Barcelona claim 27th cup title and move one step closer to historic treble. Two down, one to go. FC Barcelona confidently disposed of Athletic Bilbao 3-1 in Saturday’s Spanish Cup Final at the Camp Nou and can claim a historic treble if they can repeat the trick against Juventus in Berlin next Saturday. Messi scored the second and third, with Neymar getting the one in between, and Williams’ late header was little more than some consolation for Athletic’s swatches of travelling supporters.

In 15 years, Primavera Sound has established itself as the most international musical festival in Southern Europe and a global point of reference in the realm of urban music events, particularly among indie and pop fans. With more than 190,000 festival-goers expected this year, the core of the show takes place in Barcelona's Fòrum Park - an enormous setup by the sea - from Thursday the 28^th to Saturday the 30^th of May. During this 3-day-session, a total of 193 concerts will be held, with international artists performing non-stop from the afternoon (around 5 p.m.) until the next morning. The 2015 line-up looks once again to be pretty spectacular: The Black Keys, Interpol, The Replacements, alt-J, Underworld, Damien Rice, Belle & Sebastian, The Strokes, Patti Smith, Tori Amos, Antony and the Johnsons, Ride, Caribou and many (many) others will be playing on the 8 main stages of the festival. 49 concerts can be followed in high definition streaming on both the web and via the festival’s official app.

The number of mortgages on homes in Catalonia increased by 35.1% in March compared to figures from March 2014, data from the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE) show, with a total 3,229 mortgages approved. This yearly increase strengthens an uninterrupted trend of 11 consecutive months of annual growth, following 44 months of uninterrupted decline. In Spain as a whole, a 19.71% annual increase in March on figures from March 2014 was registered and 19,806 mortgages on houses and flats were granted. These figures represent the 10^th consecutive month of annual growth at Spanish level. In all the Catalan Provinces, an annual increase was also recorded: Lleida came top with a 76% increase, followed by Barcelona (35%), Tarragona (28%) and Girona (22%).

The Catalan Government has sent another warning message about its lack of liquidity, which depends on the Spanish Executive’s regular transfers since most taxes are collected by Madrid-based services. The Catalan Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, accused the Spanish Government of "deliberate asphyxia" and asked the rest of the Catalan parties to "pool together" to denounce the situation. According to Homs, such financial asphyxia will affect everything except salaries. All Catalan Government departments will be affected and their payments to service providers will be delayed. The Catalan Finance Minister, Andreu Mas-Colell, already warned about this financial asphyxia on previous occasions. In the coming days, Mas-Colell will meet with the rest of the parties to discuss the situation. However, the Spanish Finance Ministry rejects the accusation and has stated that it has made all the pending transfers.

The most likely future Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, has held a press conference the day after election night, in which her alternative left, green and pro-self-determination coalition Barcelona en Comú became the most-voted party in the Catalan capital, obtaining 11 seats, far from the 21-seat absolute majority. Colau stated that she would “start a round of talks” with the other left-wing parties to look for government agreements as of this Monday. She will contact the social-democrat Catalan independence party ERC (5 seats), the Catalan Socialist Party (4 seats) and the radical independence and alternative left-wing party CUP (3 seats). However, she did not rule out the possibility of reaching specific agreements with other parties on some important issues. She also highlighted her commitment to Catalonia’s right to self-determination. In addition, Colau also accused the current Mayor from the centre-right pro-Catalan State coalition CiU, Xavier Trias, of signing last-minute contracts before leaving office.

Camp Nou was jubilant for the 2014/15 La Liga title celebration and farewell to Xavi Hernández. Messi net two for Barça but Depor pulled both back with second-half strikes from Lucas and Salomão. Saturday afternoon was the perfect opportunity for FC Barcelona to enjoy a well-deserved rest stop. Nearing the end of a pleasant ten-month journey and just six days after one its biggest highlights, the time had come to pull off the highway, enjoy the scenery and — with the end of the road on the horizon and as visible as ever — refuel for the final two stops.It was a day for contentment, delight, and elation, an occasion to celebrate the 2014/15 La Liga title. But it was also a moment for goodbyes, the ones that nobody likes to make, the time to bid a final farewell to Xavi Hernández, one of the perennial fixtures of this barnstorming band of first-class footballers, who recently told his buddies that this year’s trip would be his last.

Catalans are holding their municipal elections on Sunday, while the elections to the Catalan Parliament are to be held in September, as opposed to other parts of Spain, where they are voting for their regional parliaments on Sunday. These municipal elections come after 7 years of economic crisis and also with very uncertain political horizons. Two debates have dominated the campaign: Catalonia’s independence and the rise of new or secondary parties that promise to change the current model. For many people in Catalonia, Sunday’s elections will be a first stage of the ‘de facto’ plebiscite on independence that is going to take place with the Catalan elections on 27 September. It is also the opportunity to support changing the current political, economic and social model, with the rise of alternative left coalitions. Furthermore, majorities and town halls go through significant changes, particularly in Barcelona and the cities of its Metropolitan Area, where there are no clear winners forecast and surprises are likely to happen.

The Spanish Government gave the green light on Friday for the bill for the ‘Law on National Security’, amid criticism from Catalan political parties. The new text foresees the Spanish Government taking control of police corps run by the Autonomous Community executives, such as the Catalan Government’s Mossos d’Esquadra, and the local police run by municipalities. This shift of powers would happen if a State of Emergency was to be declared in a particular area due to a natural disaster or in order “to defend Spain” or its “Constitutional values”. Thus, PM Mariano Rajoy is passing a law that would allow the Spanish Government to take control of the Catalan Police if the independence process was to go too far for Madrid’s liking. Besides this, the new bill also establishes powers in some important areas such as cyber security, maritime safety and financial security, among others.

The midfielder announces he's leaving Barça at the end of the season, after 17 years with the first team. "I'd like to announce that I'm leaving Barça after this season. The decision is definitive yet difficult. I think now is the time to leave, that's the way I feel.” Thus, with those words and raw emotion, Xavi Hernández, the greatest midfielder in FC Barcelona history, made his farewell to the club of his life.He continued: "It was the right decision to stay this year. I still feel important [to the team], but I think it's time. I need a change of scenery. I signed a contract with Al-Sadd [in Qatar] for two seasons and I have a very exciting project at the Aspire Academy. It's the ideal place to continue training."

There has been railway chaos throughout Catalonia due to a major failure in the control centre of the IT system of the network run by Adif and operated by Renfe, two public companies both owned and managed by the Spanish Government. This incident is to be added to a long list of problems in this network during the last decade due to a lack of investment by the Spanish Government. All the short- and medium-distance trains in Catalonia using Adif's network stopped completely between 6.30 am and 7.45 am, affecting some 200 trains and 80,000 people at the start of rush hour. Trains started to work again with more than a 1 hour delay and took the entire morning to gradually recover the accumulated delay, but parallel services have also been affected, such as the High-Speed network, where a train was stuck for 2 hours in a tunnel.  The Catalan Government considers the situation "unacceptable" and demands immediate investment, or it will request the transfer of the infrastructure.

Catalan exports totalled €15.66 billion for the period January-March 2015, a 6.6% growth on figures from the 1^st quarter of 2014. This represents a new historic high, setting a new record for Catalonia’s export sector, which has been growing strongly over the last few years. As well as this, exports in March increased by 15.4%, reaching the highest amount ever recorded for a single month. Exports from Catalonia during the first quarter of 2015 represent 25.7% of Spain’s total exports. Regarding Catalonia’s imports, they totalled €18.48 billion, a 4.4% increase. Catalonia’s trade deficit reached €2.82 billion, representing a 6.3% drop on figures from the previous quarter.