Spain Business Brief - Friday June 5 2009
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By h.b. - Jun 5, 2009 - 1:06 PM
Zapatero expects more Spanish savings banks to fail

The Spanish Prime Minister has admitted that there are still some problems in some of the country’s savings banks.
José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on TVE television today that more mergers were expected in the sector, but still defended the Spanish financial system which he said was surviving the crisis well. He said that the State deficit will be back to 3% in 2012.
Despite that, the cabinet had already prepared an emergency fund for the rescue of banks.
The Junta de Andalucía has however rejected the idea of the region’s savings banks merging with others from outside the region. It comes as Cajasur, owned by the Catholic Church, has been looking for a partner from outside Andalucía.
Meanwhile ING has announced it is closing its operations in ten countries as a cost-cutting exercise. Spain is not affected.

The fall in industrial production moderated during April in Spain, but even so the fall was 20% year on year. It’s the 12th consecutive monthly fall in the IPI, the industrial production index. The 19.7% year to April reduction compares to the 24.7% reduction in the year to March.

The contraction of the Spanish economy in the first quarter of the year has resulted in the European Central Bank making another cut back in its forecasts for growth for 2009 and 2010 in the Eurozone. The latest fall for 2009 is put at -4.6% in the Eurozone, compared to their previous forecast of -2.7%. It comes after the ECB kept interest rates at 1% on Thursday.

House sales in Spain fell by 33% year on year in the first quarter. Between January and March there were 63,253 registered sales for new property and 46,901 resale sales.
The biggest reductions in sales have been seen in the regions of Cataluña, Balearics and Asturias.
Despite the numbers experts in the sector think that the end of the fall in sales ‘could be close’.
The average mortgage credit at the end of March stood at 124,316 €, 15.42% lower than a year previously, and the average monthly mortgage payment in Spain over the first quarter of the year was down 11% at 740.9 €

The regional government in Aragón has said it is confident that the Opel factory in Figuereulas, Zaragoza, is to build the new Opel Meriva. Their optimism comes after a meeting with the Ministry for Industry and the President of General Motors Europe, Carl Forster.

There have been two dozen injuries today, Friday, as protests continue from workers in the metal industry in Vigo. They are demonstrating against plans to reduce the workers’ wages.

Expo Zaragoza has announced losses of 54 million €, with the low number of ticket sales being blamed.
The management council of the event held last spring and summer have described the results as ‘adequate’.

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