Economía

The Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, reveals in this interview that her flagship project, the time tracking system, which seemed stalled after the harsh report from the Council of State, will be implemented soon. It will be approved before summer and without significant changes, she assures. She also invites Junts to negotiate the extension of rental contracts and points out that she has a good relationship with Carlos Cuerpo, but they disagree on the economic program.

The pressure that the U.S. president, Donald Trump, wants to exert on Germany, from where he has just withdrawn his troops, also extends to trade agreements. Yesterday, out of nowhere, Trump announced that he will raise tariffs on European cars again, from 15% to 25%, stating that the European Union does not comply with the agreements of the Joint Declaration that both parties signed last July.

The failure to update the IRPF rate to inflation caused tax revenue to increase by almost 2.3 billion during last year. The calculation is official. It is reflected in the Annual Progress Report that the Ministry of Economy sent to the European Commission on Thursday night. The document confirms that the lack of deflation, an issue that has been part of the public debate in recent years, is generating considerable additional income for the public coffers.

Artificial intelligence continues to strongly drive the United States economy, which grew at a robust rate of 2% in the first quarter. AI also explains the sustained rise, despite the war, of the New York Stock Exchange, whose main indices closed April with

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he will increase tariffs on vehicles from the European Union (EU) and accused the Old Continent bloc of not complying with its trade agreement with the United States.

The Pentagon expands its partnerships with the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The command center of the U.S. defense announced this Friday agreements with eight companies, including giants OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, SpaceX, Oracle, and Nvidia, to deploy their AI capabilities in the classified networks of the Department of War (Defense). Several of them were already working with the entity. According to a Pentagon statement, they will now be integrated into its secret and top-secret network environments, which will involve greater use in sensitive matters.

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) has developed the most advanced open-source microchip in Europe. It is a tiny chip, whose transistors measure only 1.8 nanometers. This microchip is capable of processing information very quickly and consuming less energy than the chips that are more widespread in the market, whose transistors measure between 4 and 5 nanometers.

El Banc Sabadell has completed today the sale of its British subsidiary TSB to Santander for 3.3 billion euros once all the relevant authorizations have been obtained. That amount includes 300 million in capital gains (extraordinary profit) from the operation.

A May Day focused on “no to war” and the right to housing kicks off, with the Andalusian elections as a backdrop. The major unions, CCOO and UGT, will hold more than a hundred demonstrations across Spain this Friday. This year’s protest will have as its main axes the demand to end the offensive in the Middle East, its economic consequences, the problem of access to housing, and the elections on May 17 in Andalusia.

The United States economy grew at an annualized rate of 2% in the first quarter of the year. In this way, it gained momentum after a poor final quarter of 2025, when it ended with a GDP of 0.5% due to the government shutdown.