A major problem for innovation to advance in Spain and for start-ups to make the leap is the lack of capital to finance this transcendental step to succeed in having technological giants. Furthermore, added to this is the fact that resources from investors – the funds and venture and private capital needed for this – are being directed massively towards defense, at the behest of demands from NATO and the United States, for countries to allocate a larger proportion of their budget to these activities.

The European Commission has drafted a regulation, the Public Procurement Act, which seeks to facilitate SMEs' access to public procurement and avoid the difficulties they currently face in participating in these tenders. Public procurement represents approximately a total of 2.6 trillion euros annually, nearly 15% of the European Union's (EU) gross domestic product (GDP). Pimec applauds the initiative which –it asserts– incorporates the measures it has advocated for during the consultation process and in the definition of European proposals through the SMEunited business association, of which it is a member.

The president of the United States Federal Reserve (Fed), Kevin Warsh, faces the challenge this Wednesday of raising interest rates to combat inflation, which stood at 3.4% in August, far from the 2% target. Markets and investors take for granted a quarter-point increase, with a probability of more than 90%, according to the digital tool Fedwatch CME. But there is a problem: this is precisely the opposite of what the country's president, Donald Trump, who pushed for Warsh's appointment, wants. The head of the White House, in addition, threatened to cut off trade with all countries with which it has a trade deficit if the Fed does not lower the price of money, currently situated between 3.50% and 3.75%, after keeping it in July.

In recent days, even the main representatives of artificial intelligence (AI), from Open AI to Anthropic, Space X or Google, have warned about the risks of a technology that, they warn, may end up dominating humans. "There is a genuine concern about the models that are becoming common and have not been tested much and can be used to commit atrocities," states Esteve Almirall, Esade professor specializing in data, analytics, technology and AI. In this context, once Open AI, the creator of ChatGPT, has decided to delay its stock market launch to take a kind of pause in growth, some see the fear of a stratospheric punishment in the market if any of the existing tools is involved in some wrongdoing. Some of these companies have valuations that exceed the gross domestic product (GDP) of countries like Germany (more than five trillion) and a negative reaction would mean an almost unprecedented collapse given that there have never been companies with these prices, warns Josep Soler, founder and executive advisor of EFPA Spain (Spanish Association of Financial Advisors and Planners). "The enormous valuations that have been made of these companies would collapse in the event that trust in them was lost," he adds.

The Catalan company Open Cosmos, a manufacturer of satellites and space infrastructure, has raised 300 million euros in a round in which the Catalan Finance Institute (ICF) participated, among others. The operation takes place in a context of increased investment by governments and companies in secure and strategic space systems, highlights the company presided over by Pere Mier.

This week, Pimec went to Madrid to defend a law that facilitates business growth. Antoni Cañete, the president of this Catalan employers' organization, is a man who is insistent and persistent in the defense of what he considers affects small and medium-sized enterprises. His phrase is a classic: "SMEs must be on the bridge of command," which means that these companies, which are the main component of the country's industrial and business fabric, must be present in all areas where the regulations and rules that affect them are decided. A sign of this is the constant demand for rules and measures aimed at combating late payments, an evil that stifles many companies, especially the smallest ones and, of course, the self-employed who work as suppliers for larger industries and companies.

Matching the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of the main countries of the European Union (EU) may cost Spain between two and three decades of growth above the average. This is a path already initiated in 2013, but one that requires many more continuous years to equal the leaders in wealth per inhabitant, which are Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, known as the EMU4. This is pointed out by the document The sources of growth in Spain and the main European economies: total factor productivity and sectoral heterogeneity,published by the Bank of Spain.

Starting next Tuesday, September 15, SMS, MMS, and Rich Communication Services (RCS) from commercial aliases (brands, trade names, company names, or domains) that are not registered with the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) will be blocked by telecommunications operators. It is a measure, included in an order from the Ministry of Digital Transformation, that seeks to curb fraud and identity spoofing scams through these messages used to send mass notifications and all kinds of alerts to citizens' mobile phones. Today there are 13,565 registered aliases that will be able to continue sending messages, but the trend of requests varies and is growing, according to the CNMC. In fact, there are currently about 4,000 aliases pending approval.

After losing about 285 million euros last year and following a redundancy plan (ERO) that affected 189 people, Mediapro is starting a new life. This is what the executive chairman, Sergio Oslé, and the CEO, Carlos Núñez, stated this Wednesday to the staff at the audiovisual group's headquarters. The change will be materialized with a new name: Mediapro will be renamed Imagina starting January 1st, and over the next three years, it will generate 100 million euros in free cash flow, once debt interest and other charges are paid, which will be used to finance the audiovisual company's growth. The resources will be invested in technology, alliances, and acquisitions to gain more volume.

The Government has launched the work to prepare the Generalitat's budget for 2027. As anticipated by the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, in an interview with ARA, the Catalan administration has given the starting signal to have accounts for the next fiscal year. The Catalan executive has agreed to set the non-financial, non-earmarked spending ceiling for the Generalitat for 2027 at 43.191 billion euros, 4.9% more than in the 2026 approved budget. In absolute terms, this represents an increase of 2.021 billion compared to the figures for the current fiscal year.

Frit Ravich will allocate 115 million to a new plant in Maçanet de la Selva, where it has its current factory and headquarters, and to a new distribution center in Madrid. The works, which will begin next year, represent "a decisive step" in the execution of the strategic plan of the family business specialized in the production of potato chips, snacks, and nuts, as highlighted by the group. The production plant, where it is expected to create up to 500 jobs progressively, will occupy 33,000 square meters. The Madrid center will be used to optimize logistics and "continue raising service standards in the central and southern area," according to the company.

With the end of the summer holidays and the arrival of autumn, the debate on workplace absenteeism will return. One of the highlights will be the white paper that at the end of this month (it could be the 28th or the 29th) Foment del Treball plans to present, and which is being prepared by a group of experts. The group is headed by Jordi García Viña, who is a professor of labor law, as coordinator and president; and the rest are Fernando Casado, who is the president of Asepeyo; Pedro Pablo Sanz, who is the director general of the association of mutual insurance companies, Amat; Daniel Torró, CEO of Geseme, dedicated to occupational risk prevention; Antonio Salas, who is a great specialist from Madrid, within Amat; the lawyer Manel Silva and Yesika Aguilar, who is the director of labor resources at Foment.

"Things have changed. It is now more common for women to access positions of responsibility in family businesses. They tend to be better because it is harder for them to get there." This is the statement of the president of a large Catalan company who handed over power to a daughter to run the business. And this is no longer as unusual as it was a few years ago, although there is still a way to go. The fact is that family businesses in Catalonia "are clearly more inclusive of women".

Public debt yields have experienced a significant climb in recent weeks, reaching levels not seen in two decades. Fears of inflation and, therefore, the forecast of new interest rate hikes have driven sales of these assets. The fact is that if the cost of living becomes more expensive, the fixed interest paid by a bond loses purchasing power and, consequently, investors sell the securities they hold in their portfolios and demand higher profitability on new issues.

The new financing model has passed the first vote in the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) with the support of Catalonia and the Canary Islands (in addition to the Spanish government) and the vote against it from all the autonomous regions governed by the PP and the PSOE. The Minister of Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero (Caldes d'Estrac, 1976), is satisfied.What future awaits the new model now?

The twelve-month daily Euribor, the reference for variable-rate mortgages, closed August at an average of 2.952%, close to the 3% level it reached on some days of the month that is ending and which had not been seen since September 2024. On the last session of August, the one-year daily Euribor reached 3.003%. As a consequence of this trend, those whose mortgage loan review is this month will see their monthly installment increase by an average of 80.32 euros, up to 936.76, and about 963 euros annually.

The meeting of central bankers, academics, politicians and businessmen in Jackson Hole – the mountain area of the state of Wyoming, in the United States – which began this Thursday, marks the economic week and the start of the course. The summit, which lasts until Saturday, has an impact not only on the world's leading economy, but on that of the entire planet. It is expected that the president of the Federal Reserve (the Fed) of the USA, the country's central bank, Kevin Warsh, who replaced Jerome Powell last May, will give clues this Friday in his speech as host about his policy against inflation. In the time he has been in office, he has not yet clarified it. Despite assuring that his objective is that the general increase in prices be 2%, far from the current level, he has not explained what path he will follow to achieve it. This has generated doubts among investors.

Last year, the Generalitat once again broke a record for year-on-year spending. This practice, a consequence of budgetary insufficiency, meaning that projected public accounts do not cover all real expenditure, soared in 2025 to 5,295 million euros, 12% more than the previous year and more than a tenth of all non-financial expenditure for the year.

The debt of the United States has surpassed the threshold of 40 trillion dollars, above its gross domestic product (GDP), that is, the value of all the wealth it generates in a year, which exceeds 30 trillion. In the second term of President Donald Trump, which began in January of last year, about 4 trillion has been added due to the costs of the war with Iran. And the tariffs he had imposed globally stopped being collected after the Supreme Court annulled them. The solution will not come through other revenues, through tax cuts for companies and large fortunes. All of this, together with Trump's unpredictability, raises doubts about the economy of the world's leading power. Uncertainty has costs and is expensive.

In a world dominated by uncertainty and with a completely unpredictable President of the United States, public debt, which countries issue to finance themselves, has soared to yields like those of 20 years ago, in a crisis phase.