Euro Weekly News - Axarquia 18 - 24 July 2019 Issue 1776

FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGAL www.euroweeklynews.com 27 June - 3 July 2019 EWN 17
Too many
jobless
in Spain
THE Spanish jobs sector
remains one of the biggest
problems within the country’s
economy.
The unemployment rate
is expected to continue to
fall, but is predicted to
take until 2021 before
reaching around 12 per
cent, according to the
Bank of Spain.
After a five-year slump
in the economy from 2008
to 2013 unemployment
soared to almost 27 per
cent, but has since fallen
to 4.7 per cent in the first
quarter of this year.
“While it’s true that the
unemployment rate has
fallen significantly since
the economic recovery began,
it is still very high,”
said Governor of the central
bank Pablo Hernandez
De Cos.
Lower AVE costs call
AVE: High speed service being opened to competition.
THE current cost structure for operating
high-speed trains should be
reformed as the market is opened
up to competitors to ensure lower
ticket prices.
This is the conclusion of the
Comisión Nacional de los Mercados
y la Competencia (CNMC). In
a report is sees the need to ‘modify
in depth’ the fees that infrastructure
owner Adif charges for the use of
tracks and stations. Last year,
Renfe paid it €1.228 billion. Adif’s
liabilities add up to around €18
billion, and its only major source of
income is the fees it receives.
The regulator does not go into
depth on how the lowering of fees
will affect the financing of the
debt. But it considers the setting of
fees needs to be pitched right if
competitors are to enter the market
and reduce ticket prices.
The body, chaired by José María
Marín Quemada, says that royalties
will be ‘key’ in the design of commercial
strategies carried out by
operators that break Renfe’s monopoly,
such as the French company
SNCF, which has already shown
its interest in operating in Spain.
Both Renfe and SNCF have announced
their intention to create
low-cost subsidiaries with which to
increase the occupancy of the trains
they will operate.
In the opinion of CNMC experts
‘the conditions are in place’ for the
opening to competition of the AVE
in December 2020 to provide a better
service for passengers and generate
resources.
This will help capitalise on the
investment already made in what is
the second biggest high speed network
in the world.
Lagging
behind
in RD&I
SPAIN is the only country
within the EU 5 - the top
economic nations - to have
reduced spending on RD&I.
The Independent Fiscal
Accountability Authority
(AIReF) has said that ‘total
investment has fallen between
2009 and 2016 by -
10.2 per cent,’ in contrast to
total investment growth of
17 per cent amongst the 28
countries of the European
Union.
In contrast to Spain, the
other EU 5 nations increased
RD&I expenditure
in the same period. In the
case of France this was by
10.3 per cent, while in Italy
the increase was 12 per
cent. In the United Kingdom
the rise was close to 15
per cent.
By far away the leading
country was Germany,
where the figure reached a
remarkable 24 per cent.