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Weekly Report

Business Over Tapas -175

Business Over Tapas -175

By Lenox Napier and Andrew Brociner

viernes 02 de septiembre de 2016, 03:08h

02SEP16.- A digest of this week's Spanish financial, political and social news aimed primarily at Foreign Property Owners: With Lenox Napier and Andrew Brociner. Consultant: José Antonio Sierra (CCLAM) - For subscriptions and other information about this site, go to businessovertapas.com - email: [email protected] - ***Now with Facebook Page (Like!)*** - Note: Underlined words or phrases are links to the Internet. Right click and press 'Control' on your keyboard to access. - Business over Tapas and its writers are not responsible for unauthorised copying or other improper use of this material.

Editorial:

While those who live on the Mediterranean coast are planning their first visit to the beach this week, following the departure of the huge onslaught of summer visitors, we read with a mixture of pride and horror that July had the highest number of foreign tourists to visit this country in any single month ever. Nine point six million of them. For August, it could reach ten million foreigners, plus of course a huge number of Spaniards, all staying in hotels, rentals and campsites: and all in the queue in front of you at the bank and all, every one of them, picking up that last tin of olives at the supermarket that you had your eye on. Now with September, and school, there should be a sharp reduction in tourists and, for us residents, the opportunity for a quiet splash in the Med plus the chance of a quiet beer and a sardine or two. Bliss!

Housing:

If you rent your house on a short-term basis to people through Airbnb or similar, and neglect to declare it as income, then you can expect a nice letter from Hacienda, says Idealista here.

From Property Investor Today: ‘There has been a sharp rise in the number of homes sold in Spain as more buyers, including investors, look to take advantage of the gradual recovery in the Spanish housing market. The latest data published by the National Statistics Institute reveals that there was a 20% increase in the volume of Spanish homes sold in June compared with the same month last year which led to the greatest number of private property transactions since January 2013. In total, there were 36,856 sales across the period, which became the fifth consecutive month to see a year-on-year rise...’.

From Mark Stücklin’s Spanish Property Insight comes an article titled ‘Spanish house price data published in August’. The best word might be ‘quiet’: ‘Data from the General Council of Notaries showed national average prices falling 1.9% over 12 months to the end of June, whilst figures from Tinsa, Spain’s leading appraisal company, showed the average index up an annualised 0.3% in July...’.

International Living recommends Life in Spain as cheap in an article from 2015. It begins: ‘Cost of living in Spain is low, even in the cities. Leaving aside rent or mortgage payments—and depending on your lifestyle—a couple could easily live on $18,000 to $22,000 per year and still eat out regularly. Once you know where to go, a meal for two with wine or beer can cost as little as $22...’.

Tourism:

It’s clear that the hoteleros with their powerful lobbies are against anyone staying anywhere except in their establishments, which explains in part the new rules and regulations for private landlords. Articles praising Airbnb are therefore not welcome. Oh, here’s one.

Numbers aren’t everything, of course. In Ibiza, there’s the ‘turismo de basura’ to avoid...

Finance:

Hacienda has obliged seven autonomous regions to expand their commercial hours. These are Andalucía, Aragón, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Cataluña, Extremadura and the Valencian Community. Usually this comes down to the number of Sundays the shops are allowed to open during the year. The concept of Walmart-style 24 hour shopping 365 days a year (creating lots more jobs) is yet to arrive in Spain. Anyway, it’s a start. El País reports here.

Tesla is at last in Spain with 29 charge-centres across the country. Story at El Español here.

When the season ends, a lot of people lose their employment. El Mundo notes that a massive 333,107 people lost their job this past Monday.

The story of Abengoa (according to Wolf Street): ‘Few companies epitomize the failings, follies and foibles of today’s age of hyper-financialized, super-crony capitalism quite like Spain’s teetering green-energy giant Abengoa. The firm came within inches of becoming Spain’s biggest ever bankruptcy last year after embarking on a suicidal multi-year international expansion program fuelled by exceedingly generous renewable energy subsidies and massive helpings of bank and corporate debt...’.

Politics:

The 150 point agreement between the PP and Ciudadanos is at El Huff Post here. They are a series of useful points mainly concerned with the economy but with an accent on controlling corruption (at a national level only, and with the word 'corruption' re-defined). The math is not working though, with 137 deputies from the PP, plus 32 Ciudadanos and one from Coalición Canaria. Total: 170. They need 176. The first round of debates to create a government was held yesterday, Wednesday, with the expected majority vote (180) against Rajoy’s candidature. The second round (when a simple majority ‘yes’ rather than ‘no’ vote would carry the day) will be held this Friday. It looks like it won’t be working for Rajoy...

Corruption:

The anti-corruption pact signed between the PP and Ciudadanos is for corruption at a national level; not, it turns out, for piffling little misdemeanours at a regional or local level – like what went down in the Valencia Town Hall during the years of Rita Barberá...

Brexit:

The reaction from the ex-pat Brits following the dread announcement of a ‘Brexit’ was to create several protest groups. Here’s Almería Hoy writing about the Europats, and here’s La Vanguardia with a report on Brexpats in Spain.

‘The confusion and mismanagement of Britain’s impending EU exit are by-products of an empire that still hasn’t come to terms with its own decline. What are the legal implications of the chaos? So a minority of people in Britain have voted to leave something bigger than themselves? Sounds about right if you understand the standard collective British attitude towards… well anything really. This isn’t a cheap jibe: unpacking the historical and legal irony of Brexit, and the character of the British Empire’s decayed remains, truly brings to light the worrying extent of Britain’s egotistical diplomacy, and might help make sense of its consequences... From Spoiled Rotten: an article appearing at The Leveller here.

Various:

A horrible spectacle of a young bull being foully treated as part of a fiesta was released on a video by PACMA (an eccentric political animal-rights party). The local town hall says the video was manipulated. PACMA answers this by saying that the PP mayor of the town of Valmojado is wrong to suggest they manipulated their video to add fuel to the fire, and then released a second even more revolting film. Readers who enjoy these things can watch it here. El Pais in English then joined in with an editorial which begins: ‘The recent diffusion of a bullfighting video in which a calf is seen being fought and killed in the ring, and which was recorded in Valmojado, Toledo, has once again shown the unjustifiable inertia that allows for these barbaric spectacles to continue to be held...’. Will all of this bad publicity eventually end up in a ban for the traditional bullfight and its 200,000 jobs (figures according to the same newspaper inApril this year)? Probably one day it will...

According to Ciencia Xplora (June this year), one good thing about the Brexit is the departure of the one country within the EU which was firmly against placing a ban on fracking. Now the rest of Europe will find it easier to legislate against this practice.

‘The Spanish city of Zaragoza traces its Christian heritage back to the year 40AD when the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared to St James the Apostle on the banks of the river Ebro. The Roman pillar on which she was sighted has been an object of veneration ever since. To this day, the city’s skyline is dominated by the spires and domes of its renowned twin cathedrals. But much of Zaragoza’s religious heritage is now embroiled in a modern controversy. At stake is a question that is being asked in villages and cities across Spain, and that has pitted the Catholic Church against a new breed of leftwing politicians and secular activists: who owns all the cathedrals, monasteries, churches and shrines?...’. Found at the Financial Times (There’s sometimes a pay-wall) ...or otherwise here.

News from The Grange and Armada Development Association at the Celtic Fringe Festival, Ireland: ‘As part of the upcoming Celtic Fringe Festival, which commemorates Spanish Armada links with Sligo, a Spanish Navy ship will sail into Sligo Bay for the duration of the festival between September 22nd-25th next. The OPV Centinela will join a flotilla of local boats for a Parade of Sail from Mullaghmore to Streedagh Beach to remember the 1,100 souls who perished there in 1588, when 3 ships of the Spanish Armada sank during winter storms...’.

From Typically Spanish: ‘Great Britain impeded Spain from entering the Second World War with a policy of widespread bribery sent to certain generals, among which we find Nicolás Franco, brother of Francisco Franco and then the Spanish ambassador in Lisbon, together with other personalities of the regime, to a total amount in today’s money of some 700 million euros.

‘Police are investigating a series of bizarre discoveries made by divers near Calpe, eastern Spain, that include human bones and items used in religious rituals in the Caribbean. Scuba divers from a local dive centre made the first discovery on Saturday when they came across what appeared to be a human skeleton wrapped in a sheet with items used in Santeria - a religion related to voodoo popular in Cuba that fuses Christianity with West African cult practices...’. From The Local here.

The major part of Spain’s commercial gold is stored in Córdoba, says El Español. There’s a report on the best of the gold-smiths and their creations here.

‘Spain has come out triumphant in a recent expat survey. The sun-soaked country ranked 14 out of 67 in the InterNations Expat Insider 2016 survey, which was released on Monday. Spain also ranked exceedingly high in the categories “top quality for life” and “ease of setting in”, coming fifth and tenth respectively...’. Some purple prose from The Olive Press.

A billion and a trillion. BoT uses the Spanish system (where possible) which is the European system. The British used to use the European ‘long system’ or ‘échelle longue’, but now (generally) they use the American ‘short’ or ‘échelle courte’ system. Lord only knows what they’ll use after ‘Brexit’, probably the duodecimal system again. And maybe guineas too.

So 1,000,000,000 is, in European terms, a ‘thousand million’; and in American, it’s a ‘billion’. A European ‘billion’ (a million million) is an American ‘trillion’. Wiki explains here what happened with the laconic comment ‘this can cause misunderstanding’.

Finally:

Los Morancos. Again?

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