Spain Business
Spain Business Brief - Tuesday September 2 2008
By h.b. - Sep 2, 2008 - 12:34 PM
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Unemployment in Spain increased in August by 103,085 and is now over the 2.5 million mark. It means that the number of unemployed has increased by 25% in a year, and is now at levels last seen in February 1998 according to the data from the Ministry for Employment. All sectors were affected last month, but most jobs went from the service sector. All regions were affected with Andalucía particularly hit.
The Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, commented that the data is ‘objectively bad’. Speaking in Congress today, he said he would be returning to the chamber on September 10, to present a new package of measures aimed at helping jobs in the construction sector.
In addition the Spanish Social Security system has lost 114,000 contributors over the month, and Minister for Employment and Immigration, Celestino Corbacho, has said that unemployment will continue to increase, reaching 12.4% in 2009, up from the current level of 11%
Meanwhile Reyal and Colonial real estate companies are both reported to be negotiating with their bankers because of the risk of bankruptcy. Both companies are reported to in an extremely complicated situation because of their high debt levels resulting from the depreciation of their real estate assets.
Profits for the 35 companies listed on the IBEX stock market index in Spain have fallen to half the level they were last year. The main companies in the country have been affected by the economic slowdown and have announced half yearly profits at 28.988 billion €. Among those to suffer the most is the construction and services giant Ferrovial, which has seen a 92% fall. A total of eleven of the companies on the index are reporting lower numbers with the construction and financial sectors those most affected by the slowdown.
Iberia has announced that is re-organising its flights from Madrid to Montevideo following the near collapse of the Uruguayan airline Pluna. Pluna announced the cancellation of the route last week as part of cost-cutting measures. In effect code sharing is now in operation on the route allowing Pluna customers to continue to fly.
Catalan newspaper, El Periódico, has noted that Telefónica charges its customers here in Spain more for the same services than in other countries, even Britain. The costs per client are higher here where Telefónica has a more dominant position in the marketplace. The paper notes a 6 MB access to the Internet here with land line calls costs 40.90 € a month, while in the UK the Telefónica owned O2 offers upto 8 MB from 9.3 € to 24 € for 20 MB, but without the calls.
Latest numbers here in Spain show that Internet and telephone services accounted for nearly half of all the complaints made to the Consumers offices. Billing, contracts, maintenance and the difficulty in signing off from a service led the complaints with the Catalans the people making most complaints in 2007.
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