Spain Business
Spain Business Brief - Wednesday July 2 2008
By h.b. - Jul 2, 2008 - 12:43 PM
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Unemployment in Spain has increased for the first time since 1993 in June, and for the third consecutive month by 1.5%.
Over the month 36,849 people joined the dole queues with construction and the service sector hardest hit.
Foreign workers in the construction industry have been hard hit up 4% with 9,973 joining the unemployment lines.
It comes with a forecast that Spain will be the OECD country with the highest unemployment level in 2009 when the rate is now expected to reach 10.7%
The number of workers registered with the Spanish Social Security system fell over the month by 199,259.
The numbers are published by the Ministry for Employment and Immigration.
Deputy Prime Minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, described the numbers as bad, but underlined that net employment was still being created in Spain.
A survey carried out by Cadena Ser radio showed that 64% of Spaniards consider that the Government is not doing enough in the face of the crisis.
The problems for real estate companies and promoters have been underlined with the news that Promodico has filed for bankruptcy protection. It comes on the insistence of one of the two creditors of the company which is the real estate arm of the Dico group. The real estate firm has accumulated debts of close to 10 million € according to lawyers data and joins a long list of real estate companies who have suspended payments in Spain this year.
The price of telecommunications services to business fell by 3.5% in the first quarter of the year, year on year, according to new numbers from the National Statistics Institute, INE. The index of prices for the service sector however saw that passenger air transport rose by 2.1% over the period, and postal costs for companies were also up by 5.2%.
Iberdrola Renovables, the renewable energy wing of power giant Iberdrola, has made an offer of 175 million € for the largest wind power company in Greece, Rokas. The offer is for all the shares in the company and would consolidate Iberdrola as leader in the Greek market.
Unions in RENFE Spanish railways have called a strike for the middle of July, coinciding with the start of the summer holidays for many. The call is in protest at the decision of the Government to separate the cargo division of the rail network and service from the rest, which was announced by the Prime Minister last week.
Union sources say they plan to stop between noon on Saturday 12 until noon on Sunday 13, and also between noon Monday 14 and noon Tuesday 15.
Differing opinions as to how much we are going to spend in the sales this month and next. A report for the FUCI consumers organisation says the average Spaniard will spend 95 € in the sales, while the stores have estimated the amount will be 220 €, 20 percent more than last year.
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