New bosses in power ...

The new Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy won a vote of confidence in parliament on Tuesday and King Juan Carlos swore him in on Wednesday.

Now the fun will start - increased taxes and cuts cuts cuts in services and projects...

Luis de Guindos ex Lehman Brothers will head the economy ministry and Cristobal Montoro will be treasury minister.

Fatima Banez lawyer and economist will head the labour ministry and overhaul the rigid labour laws while Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo gets the plum job of foreign secretary

New names and faces ...

Good luck !!

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Election Humiliation

The result is out and the PP under Mariano Rajoy have surged to victory with an absolute majority.

186 seats out of 350 in the Spanish congress.

The PSOE which has governed since 2004 had the worse result for nearly thirty years.

I hope the Spanish people will be happy when the austerity measures start to bite.

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SPANISH ELECTION

Tomorrow November 20th is a general election in Spain.

When I was in Spain the electioneering had already started -low key compared to the UK- with debates on television, hoardings being erected and the noisy vans/cars roaming the streets with loudspeakers.

The good money is on the PP to win and triumph over the PSOE who are blamed for the economic mess and high unemployment.

I think the Spanish people will not be too happy if when elected the PP impose severe austerity and fiscal cutbacks. We holiday home owners will just have to wait and see if there are any new taxes imposed on us.

More news to follow.

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Spain's Tourist Trade

We are all aware from the media of the troubled events in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt.

Problems in the Middle East and North Africa will drive the tourists away from Egypt and Tunisia and assuming they are looking for sea, sun and sand many will head for the relative safety of Spain thus giving the tourist trade a well needed boost.

Looking ahead though the rise in aviation fuel prices which will follow any cut back in oil production will have a negative reaction in the tourist trade - number of tourists will fall.

All very much a two edged sword ...

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Property Sales

Property sales in Spain are improving.

The number of dwellings registered as sold increased in the first half of 2010. In July sales of new property was up 16% and re-sales 16.8%.

This increase has been fuelled by the impending higher sales tax which is now in force. Another reason for the increase is the fact that some owners are taking advantage of the low mortgage interest rates and trading up.

However there are few new buyers on the market and we'll have to wait now and see what happens over the next 6 months of 2010.

As the UK sinks deeper into the mire and unemployment rises Spain can not expect many buyers from that direction..

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Spanish News 1

The following has come to my attention this week and may be of interest ..

Unemployment in Spain has risen by 61,083 at the end of August.

20,000 young people applied recently for just 116 jobs in the Guardia Civil.

Ryanair increased passenger numbers to Spain in the period January to July by 32% to 12.34m while Iberia saw a 5.7% drop to 11.85m passengers.

Spain is no longer the number one tourist destination in the world - they now lag in 4th place behind China, USA and France.

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