Spain's trade deficit in the first six months of the year widened almost six-fold from the same period a year earlier to 32 billion euros ($32.6 billion), the Industry Ministry said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The outcome was wider than the deficit for the whole of 2021 and compared with a 5.4 billion euro deficit in the first six months a year ago, the ministry said in its monthly report. Excluding energy imports and exports, the trade deficit in the period was 6.1 billion euros, the ministry said.
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Spain will impose new taxes on large banks and energy companies, wresting billions of euros from business to fund policies to ease the impact of record inflation on consumers, Bloomberg News reported. The levies on both financial institutions and energy firms will last for two years. The government expects the former to raise about 1.5 billion euros ($1.5 billion) per year, while the windfall tax on energy firms, which have benefited from surging prices, will collect 2 billion euros a year.
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The Spanish government has rejected state aid for Abenewco1, a unit of Spanish engineering and energy group Abengoa, moving it closer to bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported. The company had requested a temporary state aid package worth 249 million euros ($263 million) to stay afloat while it evaluates a takeover bid from Los Angeles-based private equity fund TerraMar Capital LLC worth 200 million euros. A source from Spain's state vehicle SEPI said that because the viability of the company and the repayment of the loan were not guaranteed, the firm was not subject to state aid.
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Spanish 12-month inflation rose to 10.2% in June, the first time it has surpassed 10% since April 1985, from 8.7% in the previous month, preliminary data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose to 5.5% year-on-year from 4.9% a month earlier, the highest since August 1993, the INE data showed. Spanish European Union-harmonised inflation was 10.0% in the 12 months through June, up from 8.5% a month earlier.
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Spain's jobless number dropped below 3 million in May for the first time since early in the 2008/09 global financial crisis, as the economy's recovery from the impact of COVID-19 boosted hirings and pushed many workers out of the shadow economy, Reuters reported. The number of people registering as jobless fell 3.29% from April, leaving 2.92 million people out of work, the lowest number since November 2008, Labour Ministry data showed on Thursday. Spain added 33,366 net jobs during the month, separate data from Social Security Ministry showed.
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The number of people registering as jobless in Spain fell 2.77%in April to 3.02 million people, the lowest level since July 2019, as hirings sped up and took formal jobs to over 20 million for the first time ever, official data showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Most sectors added jobs in the month, and a strong recovery of the pandemic-ravaged tourism industry during the Easter holidays also contributed to the improvements in the labour market data, the Labour Ministry said.
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Spain's state rescue fund FROB has increased its stake in the country's "bad bank" Sareb to more than 50%, in line with a European Union order to count its liabilities as public debt, Reuters reported. FROB said on Tuesday that it had bought a 4.24% stake in Sareb, set up in 2012 to take on bad loans after the financial crisis, to raise its holding to 50.14%. No price was given but several sources with knowledge of the matter said it was merely symbolic.
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Spain's labour market withstood soaring inflation and a crippling truckers' strike in March to see a drop in unemployment, data showed on Monday, helped in part by reforms aimed at cutting the use of temporary contracts, Reuters reported. The number of people registering as jobless in Spain slipped 0.09% in March from February, or by 2,921 people, leaving 3.11 million people out of work, Labour Ministry data showed. Spain added 23,998 net jobs during the month, a 0.12% rise from February.
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Three Spanish truckers unions on Tuesday dismissed a government aid package and joined a spontaneous one-week strike against rising fuel prices that is likely to aggravate a shortage of food products in supermarkets across the country, KFGO.com reported. The three truckers unions opted to join the strike after they decided a 500 million euro ($550.45 million) government support package offered on Monday was vague and not enough to compensate for the soaring price of diesel.