Spanish industrial production increased slower than expected in June, fuelling concerns that the rebound in one of the eurozone’s major economies is losing momentum, the Financial Times reported. Year-on-year the rate of industrial production in Spain rose 0.5 per cent, significantly slower than the 1.9 per cent rise forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll and below the 1.6 per cent rise recorded in May, according to data from the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica. The fall was driven by a 8.3 per cent fall in energy production, and continued the downward trajectory seen since March.

The story of Banco Popular, the Spanish bank which failed in June last year and was subsequently bought by Santander for just €1, is still unfolding, the Financial Times reported. The Single Resolution Board (SRB), a Brussels body set up in 2015 to deal with bank failure, on Monday released its third valuation report for the bank. It is not good news for the investors who saw their holdings wiped out last year. Around €2bn in the bank's junior liabilities (which included additional tier 1 and tier 2 debt) were written down by the SRB ahead of Santander's purchase.

Spain’s services industry faced a “marked slowdown” in activity growth last month, bringing a key gauge to its lowest level in almost five years, according to a survey of executives released on Friday, the Financial Times reported. IHS Markit’s Spain services PMI dropped to 52.6 in July from 55.4 in June. It was substantially worse than the fall to 54.4 that economists polled by Reuters had forecast. Output in the services industry expanded at the slowest rate since 2013, IHS Markit said, while growth in new orders eased.

Banco Santander reported a 3 per cent fall in second-quarter net earnings, hit by €300m in integration costs from the takeover of troubled lender Banco Popular and a strong euro, the Financial Times reported. The eurozone’s largest bank by market capitalisation said total net profits, including the Popular charge, slipped to €1.698bn for the three months to June, down from €1.75bn in 2017. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected net earnings of €1.67bn for the quarter.

Spanish stocks followed Italian equities sharply lower on Tuesday, knocked by uncertainty over the future of the minority government of Mariano Rajoy and extending declines for a fifth straight day, the Financial Times reported. The Ibex 35 index of leading Spanish shares fell by 2.5 per cent, following a decline of 0.6 per cent on Monday and 1.7 per cent on Friday. The Madrid bourse has lost almost 4.5 per cent over the course of May, and is down more than 5 per cent since the start of the year.

Former shareholders in Banco Popular, which was sold for €1 to Santander last June after being put into resolution, have opened up two fresh fronts in their battle to seek compensation for their losses, Reuters reported. A group, led by Mexican billionaire Antonio del Valle, the Spanish lender’s biggest investor, filed an application on Monday in the US federal district court for the Southern District of New York asking Santander to reveal information regarding its purchase of Banco Popular.

Jittery businessmen in Catalonia, spooked by signs the recent tumult over the region's latest bid to secede from Spain is hurting the local economy, have put their investment plans on ice as they brace for the Catalan parliamentary election on Thursday, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Catalan retail sales and tourist arrivals are falling and unemployment is edging higher, recent figures show.

Global hedge fund managers have said they are willing to pursue the Spanish government in the courts for a “zillion years” until they get a full payout over a series of bankrupt toll roads, the Financial Times reported. The group, some of whom were involved in the protracted fight over billions of unpaid debt in Argentina, are looking to wring up to €4.5bn from the government — enough to make a dent in Spain’s budget deficit.

Spain’s constitutional crisis in Catalonia will lower the country’s projected economic growth next year, according to Madrid’s finance minister. Luis de Guindos said the country’s GDP growth projection had been lowered by about 0.4-0.5 percentage points to 2.3 per cent next year — “a small impact” as a result of events in Catalonia, which accounts for a fifth of Spain’s GDP, the Financial Times reported. Speaking in Brussels on Monday, Mr de Guindos said the government’s projections would likely match the European Commission’s latest economic forecasts due on Thursday.

Spanish bonds were shaken and the country’s stocks erased two days of gains as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government deployed its ultimate constitutional weapon in a bid to bring Catalonia’s bid for independence to an end, Bloomberg News reported. Spain’s 10-year bond yield climbed from a one-month low after the country said it will move forward with the process of suspending the powers of the Catalan government following Regional President Carles Puigdemont’s refusal to drop his claim to independence.