Live News From Spain As It Happens

WHICH company is seen as the biggest, most significant, most lucrative, and best-known in each province in Spain? And do these correspond with the ones that report the highest earnings? Recent research sought to identify the corporations that are considered to be the most representative of their geographical area.

DataCentric's study was largely objective and quantitative, but also partly subjective, with other professionals and with private consumers asked for their views.

Interviews and statistics, evaluation of their presence online, size in terms of employees and turnover, and other factors that attempted to identify 'commercial relevance', 'cultural identity', and 'how deep-rooted they are socially' were compiled, and a map has been produced detailing what DataCentric concludes to be the 'most important' firms in every province.

'Most representative' in 2023 and 'highest turnover' in 2019

A similar map was created in July 2019 by Business Insider, based entirely on turnover – which corporation had the highest in its province – and some of these match the 'most important' as listed by DataCentric.

One such example was the supermarket chain Mercadona, in the province of Valencia, which features in both; another is Airbus Helicopters, which appears on the two maps for the province of Albacete in south-eastern Castilla-La Mancha.

Additionally, Cosentino – a construction supplier specialising in different types of stone – is both the 'most important' as at February 2023 and had the highest turnover as at July 2019 in the province of Almería, whilst in the same industry, the tile firm Pamesa Cerámica fit both descriptions in the province of Castellón, directly north of that of Valencia.

Continuing up the north-east coast, clothing chain Essity appears on the Business Insider 2019 and DataCentric 2023 maps for the province of Tarragona, as does the motor manufacturer Seat for the province of Barcelona.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AFTER more than six years with the Eurozone interest rate, or Euribor, in negative figures, mortgage repayments have now risen at unprecedented speed and within one calendar year, leading to first-time buyers or those originally seeking to upgrade their homes having a major rethink.

Given that rates have remained stable – and very low – for so long, a variable-rate mortgage has long been the most financially-sound option for homeowners, since a fixed-rate loan tends to involve higher interest as well as an inception fee to freeze the rate for anything from two to five years or, in some cases, up to 10 years.

But then, the common currency interest rate upon which Spanish mortgages are based has never risen so quickly and dramatically, at any point in its 24-year history, as it has in the past six months.

Whilst it would not seem likely the Euribor will ever reach its record highs again, or that similarly exceptional hikes would be applied in the near future, the situation has generated widespread alarm nationally – enough that the Spanish government has swiftly introduced new legislation to soften the blow.

Firstly, what has happened to the Euribor, exactly?

Differences in repayments on the same loan amount and term are not uniform – more recent mortgage contracts, where the interest is higher than the capital, have reportedly increased by up to 11 times those of much older mortgages where the capital makes up the bulk of the monthly payments.

On average, mortgages tied to the Euribor have risen by between a quarter and a half after a dramatic hike in common currency zone rates applied by the European Central Bank (BCE).

The entity, presided by former International Monetary Fund (FMI) chair Christine Lagarde (pictured below), lifted the Euribor by 250 percentage points by the end of 2022 and a further 50 this month – February 2023 – in a bid to counter consumer price-led inflation sparked by the Russian conflict in Ukraine, transport crises and fuel shortages.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ESTATE agencies have enjoyed their biggest boom in half a generation with home sales soaring in 2022, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Growth in the residential property market was at its strongest in five years, and sales numbers highest in 15 years – even though a slowdown in December affected the total annual figures.

In total, last year saw 649,494 homes sold – the highest number since 2007, when the last major property boom began – representing a year-on-year rise of 14.7%.

Enthusiasm in the market cooled considerably in December, when sales shrank by 21.3% on those of November.

But the final month of the year is not typically one of the busiest in the property industry, given that the general public's minds are largely occupied with the early-December bank holidays and the upcoming festive season.

This said, sharp interest rate rises – the greatest seen in nearly a decade – took their toll on buying and selling rates, as mortgage repayments have experienced a dramatic increase as a result.

How 2022 compared with the previous two years 

A major slowdown was inevitable in 2020 with the pandemic bringing months of severe restrictions on movement and trade, including a complete ban on property viewings from March to May inclusive; the outcome of this was sales plummeting by 16.9% that year compared with 2019.

Re-opening of non-essential trade and gradual relaxing of Covid-linked restrictions would see home sales soar by an unprecedented 34.8% in 2021, following a very unusual year in which pent-up demand was finally released.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AT LEAST as prestigious and famous as the Oscars within Spain, and almost as much so outside the country, the Goya Awards are on a par with the BAFTAs, a scaled-down Golden Globe, and equally as coveted as the trophies and statuettes presented at the world's major film festivals – Cannes, Venice, San Sebastián, and similar household names in the cinema industry. 

Nationally, winning a Goya is almost more of an honour than the other, much more world-renowned distinctions, because it shows you've helped put Spanish film on the international map and guaranteed yourself a cult following at home. 

Named after the legendary late-18th and early-19th century painter, and originally – like the Oscars – photography awards, the Goyas have the whole of Spain glued to their TVs for the evening and sees a flurry of checking cinema showings. 

Those nominees and winners no longer on the schedule are often still being shown on Netflix, HBO and, of course, available to buy or rent on DVD, where you can add subtitles if you're not confident about watching them in the original language.

Presented live on Saturday night, we've brought you a round-up of the best in silver-screen entertainment in Spain right now, in case you missed it.

Carlos Saura, the loss of a legend

The ceremony in Sevilla this weekend was tinged with sadness, due to the absence of its star guest – legendary film director Carlos Saura knew he was going to get the annual Lifetime Achievement Goya, but passed away at home in Madrid only the day before receiving it.

Aged 91 and five weeks, Saura was once married to Dr Zhivago star and Golden Globe nominee Geraldine Chaplin – the actress daughter of Charlie Chaplin, who fell in love with the cinema great's country as well as his person, and still lives and works in Spain, as does her Madrid-born Game of Thrones star daughter Oona.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Just two months after Valencia was voted by Forbes Magazine the best city in the world to live in (https://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/33510/valencia-is-the-world-s-most-liveable-city-here-s-why), two other Spanish cities have triumphed in another report published this week.

Every year, the Resonance Consultancy draws up its World's Best Cities, the list of the best cities in the world to live and work in. To compile the report, it evaluates cities around the world with more than one million inhabitants based on different factors such as levels of safety, employment and cultural diversity. Spain comes out very well in the 2023 edition of this ranking with a double presence in the top ten.

10. Amsterdam (Netherlands)

The 2023 top ten of the best cities to live and work in is rounded off by Amsterdam. The report highlights the Dutch capital's income equality and workforce, as well as the control in recent years of its nightlife, its art galleries and the presence of some major technology companies. 

9. Singapore

The city-state of Singapore comes ninth in the ranking, thanks in no small part to its investment in research, talent and corporate headquarters recruitment, which the report says will allow it to be "home to a sustainably wealthy citizenry for decades to come".

8. Madrid (Spain)

The first Spanish city to appear in the top ten of the list is Madrid in eighth place. Resonance Consultancy highlights how it has managed to recover from the pandemic, as well as its wide range of hotels and restaurants. It also mentions the election of the Paisaje de la Luz as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Read more at ThinkSPAIN