Economía

The employers’ association and the hotel sector criticize the possibility of increasing the tourism VAT to 21%. It is a position they have held for some time, but to which they have now added a new element. It is the report from the Institute of Economic Studies (IEE), published yesterday, which openly disagrees with this possibility recommended by the European Commission, the OECD, and also the group of Catalan economists who prepared the Fènix report.

The price of housing will continue to accelerate in Spain over the coming years. The rating agency S&P Global Ratings forecasts that real estate will increase by 9.1% in 2026, which would make Spain the second European country with the highest rise, only behind Portugal (10%). Additionally, it anticipates that it will lead price growth between 2027 and 2029.

The President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has described the financing system proposal put forward by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, as “a betrayal and a trap aimed solely at treating Catalonia as a nation and buying support.”

Despite the perception that investment companies dominate the buying and selling of homes in Barcelona, the data shows that the vast majority of transactions in the Catalan capital are still carried out by individuals. According to a report prepared by the Cambra de la Propietat Urbana de Barcelona with data from the Notary Statistical Portal, individuals accounted for 87% of the sales registered in 2025, compared to 13% signed by legal entities. Last week, the Parliament gave the green light to urgently process the restriction on the purchase of homes in pressured areas unless it is to reside, for a family member, or to rent it out residentially, with the aim of avoiding real estate speculation by funds.

The Dutch have historically played a much more significant role than one would expect given the size of their country in the technological transfers that have shaped the modern world. In the 17th century, their financial and agricultural innovations spread to Great Britain, driving the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of the British Empire. In the 18th century, the Russian tsar Peter the Great studied Dutch shipbuilding techniques to create the fleet that would turn Russia into a maritime power. And in the 1970s, the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan stole blueprints from a Dutch laboratory to launch his country’s nuclear weapons program and later contribute to the development of similar initiatives in North Korea, Iran, and Libya.

Intense clash in the Cambra de Barcelona. The plenary session of the Barcelona business institution, scheduled for next Thursday and in which the proposal to expand the so-called silver seats from the current two to ten must be approved, is heading towards staging a consolidated…

The higher taxation borne by investments in Spain compared to other comparable countries penalizes and hinders households from investing their savings. The effective rate borne on various products analyzed – stocks, deposits, funds… – rises to 22.3%, eight points higher than the 14.4% of the European Union, according to a report by the Institute of Economic Studies (IEE) and the Spanish Association of Financial Advisors and Planners (EFPA).

In the operation of selling a building in Barcelona, the price agreed with the buyer is only the starting point. The amount actually received is significantly reduced by taxes, registry cancellations, outstanding charges, professional fees, and costs arising from the legal structure of the property.

The new regional financing system contemplates that “the procedure for collecting and distributing income” may be carried out with “a common or shared cash model in which tax revenues simultaneously reach the corresponding state or regional administration.” It says nothing about the management of that collection nor that, for example, the Generalitat collects all the IRPF in Catalonia, despite it being contemplated in the investiture pact of Salvador Illa signed by ERC.

Good news in the labor market is terrible for investors. This was confirmed this Friday on Wall Street where the three indices suffered severe drops, led especially by the Nasdaq (down 4%) due to a massive sell-off of AI-related stocks once the good job creation results were announced.