Bank of Spain tightening the screws

Police attack corruption in Barcelona

State deficit explodes

Sale of dwellings to foreigners donw 83%

Bank of Spain tightening the screws

The Bank of Spanish has decided that banks, as provision against non-payment of debts, must forthwith set aside 20% of the value of the dwellings which they repossessed more than 1 year ago. This is an increase from the 10% formerly required. It will mean that the value of bank assets will be diminished and thus they will be less inclined to repossess rather than to seek re-payments. It will though reduce the few property sales which are taking place.

Police attack corruption in Barcelona

The socialist mayor of Santa Coloma (Province of Barcelona) Munoz Calvet, has been arrested in connection with the corruption case “Operation Pretoria.”  Others also arrested include, the Urban Planning Councillor in the municipality;  Luis Prenafeta, former secretary of the Presidency under Jordi Pujol;   Macia Alavedra, Minister of Economy with Pujol;  the Director of the construction company Proinosa and President of the property group Espais, and Luis Garcia, a former member of the Regional Parliament from the socialist party.  So far police have carried out thirteen searches.

“Berlusconisation” of Valencia politics

The Greens-Free Alliance MEP Paul Romeva, has denounced the “Berlusconisation” of politics in the Valencia Region and has warned against the dangers of letting fraud and the misuse of public money pass without proper punishment. He said, “due to the “Gurtel” case bad and the large number of denunciations presented to the European Commission, the image of the Valencia Region in Europe is very low.”

State deficit explodes

The state budget deficit this year is out of control. At this time last year the deficit was 13,507 million euros; it is now 62,780 million, or 5.96% of the Gross Domestic Product. Tax income has fallen 16.2% whilst expenditure has risen 22.6%.  Income Tax receipts have fallen 10.9%; Business Tax 30.4% and VAT income 33.9%.

Public administration costs each Spaniard 9,816 euros

The EAE Business School calculates that public administration costs each Spaniard 9,816 euros, with the cost of salaries for public employees up 59.25% over the past 8 years.  20% of all public expenditure goes on salaries, only 9.3% on real investment.

In the Basque Region citizens pay an average of 13,673 euros for public administration, in Navarra its 11,704 euros; Extremadura 10,644 and Aragon 10,117 euros. The least expensive public administration is the Valencia Region where the citizens pay 8,359 euros, in Murcia they pay 8,556 and the Madrilenos have to hand out 8,898.

Assistance with purchase of cars continues

The Government has announced a renovation of “plan 2000E” which provided financial assistance for buyers of more ecological cars replacing their old ones, which use more petrol and emit more carbon dioxide.  One hundred million euros has been included in the proposed state budget for next year to provide the subsidy. All the money set aside for the plan this year has now been allocated.

Sale of dwellings to foreigners down 83%

The President of the Federation of Construction Companies in the Valencia Region, Ramon Jerez, announced that last year only 702 dwellings were sold to foreigners in the Region, against 4,233 in 2006. This is a decline of 83%. He pointed to the difficult situation in the United Kingdom, where there was a large increase in unemployment, a recession in the economy which is affected by “toxic” financial assets and a fall in the value of sterling. The General Secretary of the Building Promoters Association, Jesualdo Ros, added that British owners are selling their properties on the Costa Blanca and many others are considering doing the same. He also referred to the substantial influence on sales which the many official complaints of urban abuse has had.

Unpaid town halls bills

Municipalities owe the companies, in the Association of Public Cleaning (Aselip) group, 3,500 million euros. The Association has made official complaints regarding the systematic failure of town halls, which threatens the existence of the cleaning companies.   The Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE) to which Aselip belongs, says the problem, which started at the beginning of 2008, has deteriorated further over the past months. The cleaning companies accuse the municipalities of trying to ease their own financial problems by not paying the cleaners.

Government contracted with Guertel company

It appears the National Government has been favouring one of the companies included in the infamous Guertel case.   Construction company Teconsa,  used the good friendship of Fancisco Correa and Angelica Rubio, Personal Advisor to Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero, to ask for assistance caused by the grave economical problems of the company. He was promised “a helping hand.”   Later the company was granted contracts valued at 45 million euros, even though their bids for work were more expensive than other bidders. The police are investigating the case.

562,100 young people have never worked

More than half a million people aged between 20 and 29 years are registered as “inactive” in the official statistic, meaning that they do not study or work and are not actively seeking employment and thus they are not registered as unemployed.   Many are not seeking a job because they are convinced they will not find one; in the meantime they are living with their parents.

“Spain better 20 years ago”

The newspaper “El Mundo” has asked its readers if “they think Spain is better today than it was 20 years ago.”   39% of the 27,205 readers who responded believed it was, but 61% said it was not.

<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: blue">Viva la alegria!</span></strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: blue"> 
 <span> </span>
 According to an investigation undertaken by several universities, Spain is one 
 of the countries in which people live longer and are happier. The investigation comprised 148 countries; Spain came 16th on the list with an average life expectancy of 58.8 years and a lot of “alegria.” </span>

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: blue"> </span>

Costa Rica, where they expect to live happily until 66.7 years, was in first place, with Iceland second and Denmark third.