No Olympics for Madrid

FMI: Recession also in 2010

Indignation over payment to banker

Car sales up 18% in September

No Olympics for Madrid

The International Olympic Committee, in spite of huge efforts by the King, the Prime Minister and the mayor of Madrid, has refused Madrid’s application for the Summer Olympics in 2016, which they awarded to Rio de Janeiro.  This will be the first time the Olympic Games will be in the South American continent. It is expected that Madrid will probably try again in four years.

FMI: Recession also in 2010

The International Monetary Fund calculates that all the important countries in Europe, except Spain, will come out of recession in 2010. The fund also expects a decline in the Spanish economy of 3.8% this year, with an additional 0.7% next. The Spanish Government has revised its previous prediction of a contraction of 1.6% in the economy, to a contraction of 3.6.  IMF foresees that China and India will be the driving forces of the international economy this year, with growth respectively of 8.5 and 5.4%.

Indignation over payment to banker

BBVA has given its President Jose Goirigolzarri a ‘golden handshake’ of 52 million euros on his early retirement.  Newspaper El Mundo asked their readers for their opinion; 84% were annoyed and proposed a legal limit on amounts paid to bank directors.

Car sales up 18% in September

Sale of private cars increased 18% in September compared with the same month last year, after declining for 16 consecutive months. The increase may have been the result of the 2,000 euros subsidy allowed when changing to a new car, which will be available for only two more months. The subsidy is paid by central government, the regional ones and the car producers. Producers and vendors have demanded a new support package.

80,367 new unemployed

September saw an increase of more than 80,000 in the number of unemployed. 30,800 were workers aged under 25 who had been working in the tourist sector over the summer. The total registered as unemployed now stands at 3,709,447.

The Province of Alicante is loosing 178 jobs every day and unemployment has increased 49.36% over the past year.  The Costa Blanca construction sector has seen an increase of 70.8% in unemployment.

PP leadership in corruption troubles

The courts have decided to prosecute a substantial number of PP leaders for possible participation in the extensive corruption case “G”urtel”. The most prominent is Senator Luis Barcenas, who until recently was the National Treasurer of the party. The Prosecutor of the Supreme Court has protested against the non continuance of the investigations against President Camps of the Valencia Region, a decision by a friend of his in the Regional Supreme Court.  PP leader Rajoy and Camps met in secret at a Parador, situated between Madrid and Valencia, to discuss the delicate situation.

Less contributors to Social Security System

The number of contributors to the Social Security System has fallen to 2005 levels. Since September last year the system has lost more than 1 million contributors, or 5.71% of the total. Catalonia is the Region with the largest fall, with 14,007 less contributors. Baleares lost 13,144 and Andalucía 12,144.

At the same time the number of beneficiaries has increased 46.1% since September last year; the system paid out 20,675 million euros during the first 8 months of the year.

Spiralling deficit

The Government collected 23,569 million euros less in taxes in August this year, a fall of 28.1% on the same month last year (when the crisis had already started) and 41,420 million less than 2 years ago. The state budget deficit for this year has reached 60,340 millions and seriously questions the proposed budget for 2010.

Cleaning the “padron” of foreigners

The INE (National Office of Statistics) has ordered town halls to delete all foreigners from the “padron municipal” the local list of inhabitants, also used for preparing the list of voters. The foreigners (yes, that is also us European citizens living in another EU country which has subscribed to the Maastricht Agreement) shall now be forced to register anew every second year. This has caused uproar amongst foreigners all over Spain.