Spain Business
Spain Business Brief - Tuesday November 4 2008
By h.b. - Nov 4, 2008 - 12:47 PM
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Unemployment up 192,658 in October and is now over 2.8 million. It’s the highest rate since April 1996, and unemployment has never increased by so much in a single month.
The increase is for the seventh consecutive month and the Spanish government is tying the numbers to the international financial crisis.
Over the past 12 months the number of unemployed has increased by 769.449, nearly 38%. The increase is at a far faster rate than the last crisis in Spain in 1993.
The President of the Employers Organisation, Gerardo Díaz Ferrán, has said that unemployment here will reach 17% in 2010. He said that Spain cannot avoid the recession and he calculates that there will be more than three million unemployed in Spain at the start of next year.
Meanwhile the number of people affiliated to the Spanish Social Security system has fallen by more than 130,000.
The Partido Popular has gone as far as saying that the social protection system in Spain is now in danger. PP Spokesman Cristóbal Montoro said that Spain is unemployed, adding that unemployment is a Spanish crisis, and the country has lost confidence in the Government.
The number of the ‘suspensiones de pagos’ filings for bankruptcy protection in Spain have increased by 263.8% in the third quarter year on year. The number of companies or people who have declared themselves insolvent in the quarter was 764. 46% of the cases were linked to construction companies.
Some good news – the consumer confidence index has improved thanks to the reduction in IPC inflation, and despite the larger economic situation. The index rose in October to 50.1% from 49.5 in September thanks to lower interest rates and petrol prices.
New numbers on the costs of the typical shopping basket of basic foodstuffs in Spain has shown most have held their price. There are some exceptions, lemons are now 41.5% more costly than a year ago, and sunflower oil is 29.3% more expensive.
Gas Natural has announced profits up 10.8% for the year to September compared to last at 804.6 million €. Cashflow for the company is up 32.2%. The average price of natural gas in Spain has increased by 18.5% this year.