The 2011 price increase is 0.5 percentage points below the 3% inflation rate of 2010 thanks to a drop in the price of fuel and oil and the leveling off of tobacco prices. Inflation in December 2011 was 0.2 points higher compared to December 2010.
Gerard Piqué offered his views on the FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid Spanish Cup game. The Barça centre back has never lost to Madrid, and was delighted with yet another victory at the Bernabéu. When asked about Pepe treading on Messi’s hand, he said that others are to judge, not FC Barcelona players.
FC Barcelona presented their manager, who on Wednesday celebrated his 41st birthday, with an epic comeback win at Real Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Spanish Cup. Puyol and Abidal scored the goals.
The balance of Pep Guardiola, FC Barcelona’s Manager, against Real Madrid is eight victories, three draws, and one defeat. Guardiola confirmed that Pinto will be the starting goalkeeper in the clásico and that his assistant, Tito Vilanova, will travel to Madrid.
Barça beat Betis 4-2 at the Camp Nou after the Seville team had fought back from 2-0 down in the second half. Xavi, Messi (2) and Alexis were on target for FC Barcelona. Betis’ two goals were the first Barça have conceded at home in this season’s Spanish League.
The Barça manager stressed at the press conference before the Spanish League game against Betis that “there are 63 points left to play for and we’d like to believe that we still have a chance to win the League”.
Catalonia already approved its own spending limit through a law of its own last September. The Spanish Vice President, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, explained that the new Budget Stability and Sustainability Law will introduce “mechanism corrections” and “almost automatic” sanctions for public administrations that do not meet the deficit objectives. In addition, before approving their budget, the Autonomies and large city town councils will have to commit to a spending limit and present detailed reports on several aspects of the budget. However, she stressed that each autonomous government will have the freedom to allocate resources.
Two goals from Alexis and Sergi Roberto gave Barça a 1-2 win in Pamplona against Osasuna which safely sees them through to a Spanish Cup quarter final clash with Real Madrid. The first leg, the first ‘clasico’ is set for 22h00 CET January 20th.
In the last number of weeks, regional governments in Spain have been taking the blame for the deficit, and in the past week have done so at an international level. However, Spain’s Central Government is responsible for 63% of the country’s deficit and 75% of public debt, despite controlling less than half of public expenditure and having far greater control over revenue. Regional governments have produced less than 20% of Spain’s public debt and in 2011 were responsible for 33% of the country’s deficit, despite representing around 40% of the public expenditure total and managing the most expensive and socially-rooted policies (healthcare, education, social grants, public transportation, etc.).
The Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, announced that the Central Government might heavily fine the governments of Autonomous Communities that do not meet the deficit objective. Montoro, from the People’s Party (PP), met with the regional governments run by his party to prepare a common position on the issue. On the same day, the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) gave its support to the Spanish’s Government decree to cut public spending and increase taxes, announced at the end of December.
Espanyol and Barça shared the points in the season’s first Catalan derby after FC Barcelona hit the woodwork on three occasions. Cesc Fàbregas opened the scoring within the first quarter of an hour and Alvaro hit a late equaliser. The draw leaves Barça five points behind Real Madrid in second spot.
The Spokesperson for the Catalan Government has said that the new Spanish Economy Minister’s proposal goes against the Constitution and Catalonia’s self-governance. The Basque Country is also against the measure announced by Luís de Guindos in an interview with the Financial Times. He said that the crisis “was an opportunity to impose hard conditions and measures” on the Autonomies; he also added that before the Autonomies pass their budget, the Spanish Government will have to approve it. The next day, the Spanish Vice President refused to go into detail on the issue but stated that every administration has to commit to the deficit objective.
Barça clearly defeated Osasuna in the first game of the new year, thanks to 2 goals each from Cesc and Messi. FC Barcelona are well on their way to going through to the quarter-finals of the Spanish Cup.
Artur Mas, President of the Catalan Government, has reflected on his first year in office. Mas justified the budget cuts his government has made in order to avoid “a collapse” in public services. He also criticised the recent trend of patronising the Autonomous Communities and claiming that they are responsible for Spain’s financial problems. That, he believes, has made them scapegoats. “The Autonomies are a very important part of the State”, “they provide almost all public services to citizens”, he stressed. In addition, Mas insisted that Spain’s debt and deficit is mainly due to the Spanish Government’s overspending over many years and not the fault of the Autonomies or the municipalities.
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.