The MMM group, a historic manufacturer of automotive tubes, has closed its Molins de Rei plant unable to overcome the bankruptcy proceedings. However, the Chinese group PXI Automotive, with a presence in Catalonia, has decided to save part of the business.
Tourism once again represents a strong boost for the Spanish economy, and the spending figures of international tourists prove it. Until June, foreign visitors have left 63.8 billion euros in the country, which is 7% more than in the first half of 2025, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) published this Monday.
Real estate companies are heading off on vacation this summer satisfied after having definitively closed their accounts for the first half of the year. Overall, the major listed companies on the Continuous Market comfortably exceed 500 million euros in profits. Between January and June 2026, data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) have had greater weight than ever in the figures presented, as companies that use them pay rents to these businesses, with special relevance to the two in the Ibex 35: Merlin Properties and Colonial SFL. In the case of the former, AI plays an essential role in the data centers it owns, while Colonial SFL has seen a notable increase in the weight of companies working in this area for its revenue.
“We are very calm,” assures Carlota Pi, co-founder and CEO of Holaluz. With her captivating smile, the businesswoman staunchly defends the company’s innocence regarding the Government’s disqualification file. Although the content is confidential, industry sources say it has been opened due to possible non-payments by Holaluz to energy distributors (Iberdrola, Endesa, Naturgy), who demand energy retailers to pay “tolls” for using their networks.
It has been a year and two months since the electric system operator, Red Eléctrica (REE), decided to implement what it has called a “reinforced operation” to cover the risk of a repeat of the blackout on April 28, 2025.
Finding a rental apartment in Mollet del Vallès seems like a treasure hunt. No sign of offers in the windows of the real estate offices in the city center. Inside, there is no better luck either. “To rent, sign up on the waiting list,” they explain in one of them. Among the information they request are marital status, salary, or possible guarantors.
The political trench is also polarizing the analysis of the Spanish economic situation. No nuances: either everything is going very well or absolutely very badly. Despite the positive data, the latest two days ago, an annual growth rate of 2.7% in the second quarter, the decline in unemployment and the increase in employment, the debate has focused on the theoretical artificiality of that dynamic, which would derive exclusively from the simple accumulation of more immigrant workers, without any real improvement in the economy, especially regarding citizens’ income. No model changes either, always centered on tourism and low-value services.
The economic and civil world bid farewell this noon to the former president of La Caixa, Josep Vilarasau, at the funeral held at the Tanatori de Sant Gervasi in Barcelona. The executive passed away last Tuesday in Barcelona at the age of 95.
Catalonia has been carrying a deficit in the execution of state investment of almost 13 billion euros since 2009, a burden that, according to the construction sector, explains much of the accumulated delay in infrastructure. The Cambra de Contractistes d’Obres de Catalunya (CCOC) warns that the State only executed 57.4% of the budgeted investments last year, while calling for doubling the volume of public works to recover lost ground.
Most citizens have become accustomed to making our purchases using a bank card. It is a comfortable, easy, fast, and effective system that saves us various hassles or inconveniences: having to find an ATM, always carrying cash, or relying on the establishment we visit to have change available. To the usual advantages, we must now add another additional benefit: the possibility that the amount we have spent returns to our account. This is known as “cashback” (literally, “money back”), a reward formula that, in recent times, has started to gain popularity in some banks and stores.
