Spain Business Brief - Friday April 17 2009
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By h.b. - Apr 17, 2009 - 12:36 PM
House prices have fallen by 6.8% according to the latest numbers and are now back at levels last seen in 2006.

The inter-annual rate has shown price falls in all of the regions of Spain, and increases only in the north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
The numbers come from the Ministry of Housing, which notes the biggest falls are seen in Madrid and neighbouring provinces. Málaga, with a 10% fall in prices over the past year, leads the falls along the Mediterranean coast.
The latest numbers show that new housing has caught up and is now falling at the same rate as resale property.
Prices compared to the last quarter of last year were 3% lower.

The bad debt level at Spanish banks and savings banks has reached 4% for the first time in 12 years. The current rate is four times the 1.13% registered in 2008, although the rate of increase, month on month, has slowed slightly according to the numbers from the Bank of Spain. The volume of what are described as doubtful credits has increased by four in the last year, with the savings banks leading the bad debt ranking at nearly 5%.

Bankinter has taken 100% control of Línea Directa, the Spanish Direct Line insurance company. It paid 426 million € for the 50% which it did not hold, which was in the hands of the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Last year Linea Directa made a 71 million € profit, up 15% on 2007. It has more than a million and a half policies and more than a million clients in Spain.

The Ministry for Industry is reported to be studying obliging petrol companies to install at least one green pump on every forecourt. The new law being drafted intends to support biofuels made from vegetable oils, maize, sugar beet or sorghum. Biofuels made up 1.8% of the total in Spain last year and that was up to 2.1% in the first month of this year, but the legal target for this year is 2.5%. The EU target is 10% in the year 2020.

French hypermarket company Carrefour has announced a 5.6% fall in sales in Spain, with its supermarkets seeing the largest reduction, with sales down 9.8%. They say that sales are continuing to show volatility, despite a promotion which has taken savings of up to 25% on 10,000 lines.

Thousands of milk farmers, 15,000 according to the organisers, demonstrated in Madrid on Thursday, demanding the Government take action to help the industry. They want to see more control on milk imports.

The Agencia Tributaria has warned that as many as 40,000 income tax details they have sent out could contain errors.
The problem is in joint declarations where there is a deduction for the main residence. If the couple has paid 10,000 € of their mortgage on the property the erroneous forms only recognise 5,000 €. The error could benefit the tax man in Spain by as much as 621 million €.

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