Spain Business Brief - Friday March 19 2010

Spain Business Brief - Friday March 19 2010
larger | smaller
By h.b. - Mar 19, 2010 - 2:12 PM
Government passes the Sustainable Economy Law in cabinet

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero - EFE

The Spanish Government has today approved the Sustainable Economy Law which has the intention of changing the model of the Spanish economy, from one based on construction to one based on innovation.
Discussions have been held over recent months with social groups, opposition parties, and unions on the wide ranging proposals, and this has resulted in several modifications to the legislation.
The announcement was made in Sevilla where the cabinet has taken its Friday meeting on the road.
Among the changes, the payment times of public administration to small businesses and the self-employed are to be reduced from 60 to 30 days, and payment times to suppliers in the private sector will now have a 60 day maximum.
Improvements in financial regulatory bodies are envisaged, as well as more inspections.
The process to create a business will be simplified, and there will be 12% tax breaks on company tax for businesses involved in innovation, doubling the previous refund.
PP leader, Mariano Rajoy, commented that the reforms were ‘neither good nor bad’.

Spanish Minister for Tax and the Economy, Elena Salgado, has attacked the suggestion made earlier by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who said that countries which failed to meet EU requirements could be expelled from the Euro.
Salgado called on Germany not to send out messages on leaving the Euro which could be ‘misunderstood’. Salgado said what we need to do is coordinate economic policy.

The International Monetary Fund has advised the European Union to create a plan against the collapse of a bank. Strauss-Kahn said the ‘fire service’ as he called it, could be financed by a tax on the entities protected.

Endesa has announced it is to invest 10.5 billion € over the next five years, some 22% down on previously. It comes as its EGP renewable energy subsidiary is preparing for a launch on the stock markets of Madrid and Milan in the summer.

And finally,
Following the lead of Inditex, the owner of the Zara brand, who announced earlier this week they would not be passing on the VAT increase to consumers, Carrefour has today said that it too will be pegging prices. However the supermarket giant said there would be a few exceptions ‘where there are narrow margins’.

Click here for related stories

mobile |

email this article | print

printer friendly page

More Spain Business

Readers' comments:
Please keep to the subject. Opinions published here are of our visitors, not the Typically Spanish team. Comments which go against Spanish laws or which are libellous are not allowed. We reserve the right to delete any comment we wish. Placing a comment indicates you have read our terms and conditions and privacy policy.

Por favor, céntrate en el tema. Son las opiniones de los internautas, y no las de Typically Spanish. No está permitido verter comentarios contrarios a las leyes españolas o injuriantes. Reservado el derecho a eliminar los comentarios que consideremos fuera de tema. Escribir un comentario indica que has leído nuestros condiciones de uso y politica de privacidad.