Culture Spain – for all things Spanish

… at least for residents of Villamayor de Santiago, Cuenca. Probably better known for its famous Manchego cheese and links to Don Quijote, the small town is hitting the headlines due to an innovative economic scheme. Faced with slumping sales in the region, Luis Miguel Campayo, head of the local merchants’ association, came up with the novel idea in order [...]

It has just been announced that unemployment in Spain has reached 5.4 million people, amounting to an unemployment rate in Spain of 22.9% – some 400,000 people more than during the third quarter of 2011.  Meanwhile, 48.6% of Spain’s 16-24 year olds have no work, creating a living tragedy and a ‘lost’ generation. Can anyone be surprised by this horrendous [...]

I saw an interesting comment in El Pais recently, which stated that the President of Catalonia, Artur Mas, was justifying significant spending cuts as a way of ‘preventing Madrid from meddling with Catalan finances’.  This would, a colleague said: “blow away our financial autonomy” and “violate the rules of the game set down in the Constitution.” Yes, indeed! However, one [...]

In January 2002 the Euro became the currency of Spain, replacing the Peseta (which had been introduced in 1869) as the nation’s currency.  This set in motion two matters, both of which had a profound effect upon the cost of living in Spain. One of the first effects of the demise of the Euro was an explosion of Spanish property [...]

So, 2011 gradually ebbs away – a year that many people in Spain will be pleased to see disappear, hoping that 2012 will herald better times ahead.  Unfortunately, I fear that may not be the case and there are compelling arguments to suggest that 2012 may be more difficult and challenging for Spain than 2011. So, how does one round [...]

Well, I think if I was in Spain in charge of marketing Spanish property to the British (if there is such a person!) then I would probably finally have my head in my hands.  Either that or I would be looking frantically for a wobbly, three legged stool and a short rope. Why? Because the UK press has recently been [...]

Earlier this year, I wrote a couple of articles about the problem assessing the true scale of debt in Spain.  This was at the time that Prime Minister Zapatero was being applauded by the EU for bringing in austerity measures to bring the national debt and spending of Spain under control.  My concern was that the EU and other economists [...]

Did you see an interesting article in El Pais a while ago about working in Spain?  The article is fascinating because it illustrates an extraordinary problem and one that you may not necessarily appreciate, least of all if you are thinking of coming to Spain to work. In short, Spain has an ‘over qualified’ workforce – with 31% of Spaniards [...]

Over the years I have seen, probably, thousands of properties for sale in Spain and these have varied from beach apartments in Spain and village town houses (new and old) – all the way through to luxury villas and fincas.  However, what most of the properties had in common were owners remarkable for their lack of marketing skill and pro activity. [...]

So, as widely anticipated, the Spanish conservative party (the PP – Partido Popular) has won an overwhelming majority of seats in parliament after yesterday’s General Election in Spain.  Meanwhile, the Spanish socialist party (the PSOE – Partido Socialista Obrero Español) has been badly defeated and has finally been punished by the electorate for its gross negligence in mishandling the Spanish [...]