Almaraz nuclear power plant gains time. The Spanish government authorized this Friday the extension of the useful life of its two reactors after the favorable report from a month ago from the Nuclear Safety Council. Thus, as published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has renewed the operating authorization for units I and II of the plant until June 8, 2030. It should be recalled that, until now, the Extremaduran nuclear power plant had permission to operate one reactor until 2027 and another until 2028, and was the first in the State to be shut down.

Revolut will open rooms vips to the main airports in Europe starting in 2027 with the aim of establishing the largest network of such spaces in the world. The British neobank announced this Thursday the initiative – christened Revolut Lounge – which aims to leverage the group's brand "beyond financial products".

The country's main wine-growing organizations are joining forces against the "abusive" purchase prices expected in this year's harvest. In a joint statement collected this Thursday by Unió de Pagesos, the associations denounce that the compensation being discussed in the sector by large wineries such as Jaume Serra – part of the García Carrión group – and other producers, such as Celler Can Pagès or Vins Font, are around 0.3 euros per kilogram of grapes, a figure that is less than half the reference production cost of between 0.53 and 0.56 euros per kilo established by the Institut Català de la Vinya i el Vi (Incavi).

The president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Chambers, Josep Santacreu, celebrates the definitive endorsement of the Council of Statutory Guarantees (CGE) for the chambers law. The Catalan norm, which will foreseeably reach the Parliament's plenary session at the beginning of the term after a gestation that has lasted more than a decade, passed the examination at the CGE that the Comuns and CUP parliamentary groups requested in mid-July. The left-wing formations asked for a pronouncement from the CGE a few hours after the tense vote in the plenary of the Barcelona Chamber that served to increase the voluntary contribution seats, known as "silver chairs", from the current two to 10. Now the council's endorsement confirms "the legal solidity of the law", in the words of the president.

This Thursday, European regulations requiring car manufacturers to produce cars with 25% recycled plastic come into effect. The rule will be applied progressively: by 2032, European producers will have to include 15% recycled plastic parts or components in their vehicles, although from 2036 the mandatory percentage will rise to 25%.

The tension in the fuel market caused by the war in the Middle East continues to put pressure on consumers' pockets. As confirmed this Thursday by the Spanish government, diesel has become expensive enough during the month of July to reinstate the hydrocarbon tax reduction to 20 cents per liter.

El Prat Airport is on its way to exceeding its maximum capacity for the third consecutive year. After 2025, when the airport once again surpassed its theoretical influx – its limit is 55 million passengers annually – this year records are being broken all records. According to the latest data published this Wednesday by Aena, the Barcelona airport has registered 34.2 million passengers during the first seven months of the year, 4.6% more than the same period last year. In July alone, almost 5.9 million travelers were received, 6% more compared to July 2025.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has substantially revised downwards its expectations for global oil demand and supply in 2026 due to the lack of an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The current situation has shattered the positive expectations from a month ago, which will keep crude oil prices high, while reserves have fallen to lows since April 2025.

Catalonia closed the month of June with 2,142 new companies. According to the provisional data on the formation of commercial companies from the National Institute of Statistics, the Principality increased new business activity by 9.8% year-on-year, after a June 2025 that already approached historical records. In fact, according to INE records, it is the best June in terms of the inauguration of new companies in the historical series, with data available since 2008.

The European Commission disbursed this Tuesday €6.23 billion corresponding to the sixth payment of European anti-pandemic funds. With this new disbursement, the State has already received €78 billion in transfers and loans from the Next Generation EU funds linked to the Recovery Plan. The amount is equivalent to 76.5% of the €102 billion allocated to the State.

The large Spanish banking sector continues to defend its actions in the mortgage market despite the investigation opened in June by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC). According to financial sources consulted by the Efe agency, the arguments put forward by the supervisory body have "very little basis" and recall that the Competition Commission already dismissed a complaint against the four major state banks – Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, and Banco Sabadell – for the low profitability of their client deposits.

Competition has warned Renfe and established that it must open its workshops in La Sagra, Toledo, to the competitor operator in high-speed Iryo to be able to carry out the maintenance of its trains. The National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) has partially upheld Iryo's complaint about access to Renfe's heavy maintenance facilities. As the supervisory body communicated this Tuesday, Renfe Mantenimiento must allow Iryo's trains access to the workshop for the disassembly and assembly of their bogies.

Employment in large companies and SMEs rose by 3.6% in the second quarter, and the pace of job creation accelerated slightly compared to the first quarter, according to data published by the Tax Agency. "Although it is impossible to determine with the aggregated information available, it is possible that part of the improvement is related to the regularization process of workers that began in April," the state agency pointed out. According to the report, the figure marks a rebound within the predominant trend throughout 2025, in which job creation stood at around 3%.

Nvidia, the maker of graphics memory chips that has dominated artificial intelligence in recent years, continues to push the market to grow at a forced pace. As announced in a statement, the most valuable company on the planet has reached an agreement with six of Wall Street's largest financial entities to mobilize $500 billion in investment dedicated to AI infrastructure. In a social media post, its CEO, Jensen Huang, assured that the alliance's objective is to "establish independent financing platforms" to activate the necessary capital to build and launch large-scale AI factories.

Last Friday, the shareholders' meeting of Parlem approved a critical shareholding change for the company. The Catalan telecom company approved a restructuring of its debt that leaves the majority of the capital in the hands of the Inveready fund and the Malaga family that owns Mayoral, through its holding company Global Portfolio Investments. Specifically, with the change approved by the board, Inveready, which held around 8% of the capital, will become the main shareholder with 49%, after converting outstanding debt into shares. Furthermore, Global Portfolio Investments is expected to participate strongly in a capital increase worth 7.95 million euros to maintain its weight in the shareholding.

The concern over cyberattacks in Spain is at an all-time high. This is demonstrated by the latest data from the Ministry for Digital Transformation regarding the public cybersecurity assistance service offered by the National Cybersecurity Institute (Incibe) to citizens and businesses: according to the head of the digital portfolio, Óscar López, the contact number 017 – which directs to the aforementioned service – has received over 95,000 calls between January and June, nearly double the number attended in 2025 (49,599) and practically the same as those registered in all of 2024 (98,546).

Less housing supply and, therefore, rising prices. These are the forecasts for the housing market made by BBVA Research (the research service of the blue bank) for 2026. Thus, the bank forecasts that purchase and sale transactions will fall by 7.3% in the State as a whole, while prices will rise by an average of 12% in Spain.

The British-origin neobank Revolut obtained a full banking license in France this Monday, after a joint evaluation by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the French supervisory body, the Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR, for its French acronym).

The Generalitat has determined that there are 118 municipalities that must continue to be included in the stressed residential market area (ZMRT), a classification that establishes, among other things, where rent caps apply. However, according to the Chamber of Urban Property of Barcelona, "only" in 33 of these towns do families have to dedicate more than 30% of their income to paying rent and utilities.

The Department of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition of the Generalitat has closed the public information process of the Territorial Sectoral Plan for Renewable Energies (Plater) with 12,143 objections received. The Department, through the Catalan Energy Institute (ICAEN), has begun the analysis of the registered contributions with the aim of incorporating all those proposals that turn out to be "technically viable", the Government reported in a statement this Sunday.