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Spain Business Brief - Friday May 9 2008
By h.b. - May 9, 2008 - 1:09 PM
ALSO SEE : • Spain Business Brief - Tuesday July 8 2008 - Jul 8, 2008 - 1:05 PM
• Spain Business Brief - Monday July 7 2008 - Jul 7, 2008 - 12:54 PM

Minister for Tax and the Economy, Pedro Solbes - Archive Photo EFE
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Row rumbles on over commments made by Pedro Solbes about the construction industry slowdown.
Pilots union SEPLA has called indefinite strike action in Air Europa and Air Nostrum for June. The Air Europa pilots are to take the action on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from June, while the stoppages on Air Nostrum will be on the 21,22,23,28,29 and 30 May and from June every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
Both the cases are similar given that the workers argue that the companies have failed to meet agreed contracts. The Air Europa stoppages were suspended in May after talks restarted, but have now been put back in place for June.

The statement by the Minister for Tax and the Economy, Pedro Solbes, that the construction sector in Spain needs to ride out a needed correction has unsurprisingly not been welcomed by the companies and promoters in the sector. The real estate promoters have called for a better diagnosis as to what is going on and why, and have called on the Minister to make fewer ‘frivolous’ speeches. The President of the Promoters’ and Constructors in Spain, APCE, Guillermo Chicote, has said that the government is ‘fighting pneumonia with cough drops’ and should look out for the bankruptcies which would be arriving ‘like figs in September’. Chicote said the problem was so acute, it cannot be solved by a little speech.

Ferrovial shares have fallen by more than 6% today on the Madrid Stock Market, after the company has announced it is to spend 315 million on its company BAA, the British Airports Authority. The money will be going to re-finance the company’s debt.

The number of new companies being created in Spain has fallen by 40% over the past year. Latest numbers for March show that 9,575 companies were created over the month, down 41.1% in number compared to the same month last year. The capital put up to set up the new companies in March this year was greater than 530 million €.

There is a new twist in the Afinsa stamp trading scandal with the revelation that Hacienda is investigating whether the company sold stamps which had been stolen from the mint, the Fabrica Nacional de Moneda. It’s now two years since the fraud in the company came to light and those affected will only see the return of 15% of their money.

A price war has broken out between Vodafone and Orange for flat-rate tariffs for internet access on mobile phones. New offers were launched by both companies yesterday – Orange allowing internet navigation and free calls from 6pm to 8am for 29 € a month, while Vodafone allows internet access for 7 € a month in the first year.
Meanwhile Vodafone has received some bad press for charging its 120,000 prepaid card clients on May 1 as if it was a normal working day. A correction is now to be made.

The amount of bad debt in the commerce sector in Spain has increased by 60% in March, the seventh consecutive month with an increase of more than 20% at 1.49 billion. The number has been published today by the INE – the National Statistics Institute.


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ALSO SEE :
• Spain Business Brief - Tuesday July 8 2008 - Jul 8, 2008 - 1:05 PM
• Spain Business Brief - Monday July 7 2008 - Jul 7, 2008 - 12:54 PM
• Spain Business Brief - Friday July 4 2008 - Jul 4, 2008 - 12:04 PM
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