Business News & Financial News

Spanish economy 25th March 2026

Home sales seem to be plateauing: 5% drop in January

According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), home sales operations registered in Spain during the month of January decreased by 5.0% year-on-year, reaching a total of 57,489 units. Of the properties transferred through sale in January, 92.8% were open-market housing and 7.2% were subsidized (protected) housing. In year-on-year terms, the number of open-market home sales fell by 5.2%, while subsidized housing sales dropped by 2.6%. Furthermore, it is…

In Europe 24th March 2026

Car sales in Europe up 1.4% in February, easing year-to-date decline

Bankinter | Car sales in Europe rose by 1.4% year-on-year in February. This moderates the year-to-date decline to 1.2%, with units sold exceeding 1.6 million. Plug-in hybrids led the growth (32.1%) for the month, followed by pure electric vehicles (20.6%) and non-plug-in hybrids (10.1%), whilst combustion engines declined (17.9% for petrol and 12.8% for diesel). Bankinter analysis team’s view: A slight recovery in February (1.4%) following the sharp decline (3.9%)…

In the World 25th March 2026

Tensions in oil market set to persist for months, even if Washington’s diplomatic efforts bear fruit

Intermoney | For the US administration, retail energy prices will be a cause for concern. The national average price of diesel has already exceeded $5 per gallon, the highest level since 2022. If Washington’s diplomatic initiative bears fruit (it has presented a fifteen-point peace plan to Tehran via mediators), crude oil futures could experience a sharp fall, although such a decline may not be permanent given the underlying supply strain…

“We need to approach negotiations with the U.S. on terms that are completely different from those currently being proposed”

Says Antonio Bonet, president of the Club of Spanish Exporters and Investors. He points out that “Europe has a single tariff applied by all member states, but the U.S. applies a tariff to each country, meaning it can decide that the tariff applied to Spanish black olives is higher than that for Italian olives, as it did at one point. So there is a part of the negotiation between Europe…

“Fifteen years ago, the European economy was larger than that of the U.S. Today, the U.S. economy is one and a half times that of Europe”

“It is a shame that we are able to mobilize economic resources for large-scale projects abroad, but not in our Spanish market”

In an interview with Consejeros magazine, Sacyr’s coordinating advisor, Elena Jiménez de Andrade, explains that now “We have great capacity to win projects, a capacity that until now contrasted with a series of financial limitations and balance sheet size. However, in this strategic cycle, we are going to eliminate those barriers. That is why we have set an ambitious goal for 2033: to triple the value of our assets. We…

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