Typically Spanish - Spain Business

Spain Business Brief - Thursday November 13 2008
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By h.b. - Nov 13, 2008 - 4:09 PM
Russian Gazprom makes a move on Spanish Repsol.

The Spanish Government has announced that it will oppose the entry of Russian capital in Repsol. It comes after Moscow announced that the state-controlled Gazprom wanted to buy the 20% of the Spanish company which has been put up for sale by construction company Sacyr Vallehermoso. The statement came after the Russian Vice President, Alexander Zhúkov, met with the Spanish Industry Ministry, Miguel Sebastián on Wednesday.
Opposition leader Mariano Rajoy called on the Prime Minister to stop the deal.

As Germany has announced the official start of recession there, the OECD has said the recession in the developed world will last until next year. It forecasts that GDP for its member countries will fall by 0.3% next year, but says there will be a recovery in 2010.
Meanwhile the price of a barrel of Brent has fallen below 50 dollars level for the first time in 22 months, because of the fall in demand.

Families are expected to spend 4.3% less this Christmas as the recession bites. Lower spending on food and presents is being forecast, with cheap own brands in supermarkets now report of being in the winners column.
Another winner being reported is internet sales as people go online more to find the cheapest prices of goods.

The Reyal Urbis real estate company has multiplied its losses five fold in the third quarter, compared to last year. It now has net accumulated losses of 374 million €, five times that at this time last year. The company says however that it has more than 8,000 homes under construction or completed in 35 towns and cities in Spain and Portugal, of which only 4,364 were previously sold.

The BBVA bank meanwhile has forecast the Euribor interest rate to be just slight higher than 2% by the end of 2009. The fall in the rate used to set mortgages will be welcomed by many. Their other forecast of 15% employment next year will not.

The Ibex 35 index in Madrid has fallen by 7.5% in the last three days. The nearly 700 point fall this week is in line with falls elsewhere in Europe, and the index has continued south this morning although it recovered ground in the afternoon.

The fight against fiscal fraud has become one of the main concerns of the Spanish Government. The Cabinet has just approved a Royal Decree which is about to become law on its publication in the Official State Bulletin. This gives more power to the Fiscal Fraud Prevention Plan which was introduced in 2005, and the details will be made public next week.

The President of the Catalan Government, José Montilla, has announced that he will be travelling to Japan at the start of next month, to meet with Nissan. It comes as 1,288 people working for the car firm face the sack in Barcelona before the end of the year.

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