Zapatero promises recovery for next year

Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has admitted that 2009 has been ‘an economically very difficult year’, but he claimed that the recovery would be confirmed in 2010. The Bank of Spain has agreed that the indicators point to a recovery next year, but also warns that the improvement will be ‘limited’.
Speaking at a press conference after the last Cabinet Meeting of the year, Zapatero claimed the Spanish economy was in a moment of transition and underlined that the Government would maintain social cohesion and harmony.
‘The citizens who have lost their job are the Government’s grand concern’, he said.

Income per head increased in 2008 meanwhile by the lowest amount for a decade, up 1.8% to 23,874 €. The number has just been released by the INE, National Statistics Institute.

The Euribor mortgage rate has risen in December after 14 consecutive months of falls. It now stands at 1.24%, still 2.21% lower than at this time last year.
Those with an average mortgage of 120,000 € over 25 years will pay 510 € a month compared to the 630 € a month a year ago.
Meanwhile the National Statistics Institute says that house prices fell 7% over the third quarter in Spain. The new build price which has been resistant to the reductions was also down by 5.6%.

Delays of more than two hours have been seen today at the airports on Tenerife as Spanish air traffic controllers continue to claim they are understaffed. The Government has meanwhile noted that the average controller in Spain earns in a single year the same amount that it takes the Prime Minister a whole legislature, four years, to earn.
Meanwhile it has been announced that Air Europa is now to run the old Air Comet route from Madrid to Lima.
The CEOE employers’ organisation has closed ranks again to support its Chairman, owner of Air Comet, Gerardo Díaz Ferran. A spokesman commented that ‘the problems in Air Comet are not reason for him to resign as Chairman’.

There are more travel problems on the horizon with the AEDIF train signalmen union calling stoppages for today and on January 4 and 7. The dispute is over pay, and the Ministry for Development has set minimum services to keep the trains running. The stoppages are planned to run until 9pm this evening, and from 6am to 9am and from 6pm to 9pm on both the 4th and 7th.
RENFE Spanish railways has meanwhile announced a 7% increase in local train prices from January 1 and long distance and high speed AVE services will be 4% more expensive.

Spain’s current account deficit has reduced by almost half to stand close to 46 billion for the year to October, according to the Bank of Spain. The fall is due mainly to the correction in the balance of trade deficit arising in a ‘notable contraction’ in trade. Exports were 18.9% down, and imports fell by 28.8%.

The Prime Minister, meeting with farmers’ representatives yesterday, gave an undertaking to design a new plan to make the industry profitable. A new plan to finance the industry’s 23 billion € debt will be drawn up in January.
The news was given after the meeting by the Minister for the Environment, Elena Espinosa, while the ASAJA, COAG and UPA unions says that were satisfied with the development of the meeting, and receptiveness of the Prime Minister to take on board their demands.

And finally,
The BBVA bank is the latest to join the list of banks in Spain will close their branches on a Saturday. An agreement with the unions has agreed to close the branches from Jan 2 after management accepted their demands to reduce their work on Thursday afternoons by half. (Via Original Source)

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