Spain Business
Spain Business Brief - Wednesday June 4 2008
By h.b.
Jun 4, 2008 - 12:43 PM

The Spanish Government has announced that it is to expand the so-called ‘social’ electricity tariff with the result that costs will fall by 10% for some 4.5 million users across the country.
Users who have a contracted power of less than three kilowatts will see the reduction and only pay for their consumption.
The news comes just days before the announcement of how much power is to increase in price for other users, and was given by the Minister for Industry, Miguel Sebastián who said that the new tariffs would be designed to encourage savings.
Those who use bottled gas bombonas will also see some good news, down 2.4% in price from next month.

A new so-called ‘Plan Renove’ is to be introduced by the Government in an effort to stimulate the tourism industry in Spain, with old infrastructure to be replaced. The Government considers that the simple sun and beach tourism is now past and the idea is to offer the public more attractive holidays. As part of the investment new Parador state-run hotels are to be built in Béjar, Salamanca, Molina de Aragón in Guadalajara and Alcalá la Real in Jaén. Collaboration will be sought with local and regional government’s in order to improve the competitiveness of Spanish tourists destinations.
Also a new program called ‘Privilege Spain’ will earmark destinations which are specifically for travellers with a high powered income and spending power.

The government is to bring back its Plan Prever offering grants to people who decide to trade in their old car, older than 15 years old, for a new model. Industry Minister, Miguel Sebastián, is thus submitting to the requests from the industry to reactivate sales and remove some of the most polluting cars. A two year plan will be put in place in the next 45 days.

The OECD has reduced its forecast for growth of the Spanish economy this year again. It’s now down 0.9% to 1.6%, which is far below the latest Government forecast of 2.3% and that of the EU commission which comes in at 2.2%.
The OECD prediction for 2009 is also down, 1.3% to just 1.1% growth for next year. They say that the slowdown will not stop until the end of 2009 as the real estate market is expected to shrink.

The Spanish employers organisations CEOE and Cepyme have signed an agreement with the Banco Santander and BBVA banks to give new credits to companies which are affiliate members of their groups. 15 billion € is being made available under the agreement to finance business projects.

And finally,
In a three line press statement Telefónica has confirmed that it will be selling the Apple iphone in Spain – ‘this year’.