The Catalan car manufacturer Seat is experiencing a sweet moment amidst a complicated period for its parent company, the German group Volkswagen, which is considering severe staff cuts. Between January and June, the Martorell-based company tripled its operating profit, reaching 122 million euros, as reported this Friday in a statement.

It is a season not only for receiving tourists, which happens all year round, but also for being tourists, inside or outside the country. Looking at the data, however, we have seen that Catalans are traveling less and less within Catalonia. What has happened?

In the midst of the housing crisis, the Government has made officially protected housing (HPO) one of its flagship projects. This Friday, the PSC and Comuns have presented a bill to accelerate the creation of officially protected housing that includes five measures, one of which is to give interested owners the option to convert commercial premises, offices, and hotels into protected apartments. According to sources close to the negotiation, "if everything went well and the entire package of measures worked" it could serve to incorporate up to 20,000 apartments. "It was an unavoidable priority to expand the stock of protected housing and ensure that housing fulfills its essential function of being a home," defended the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, at the joint presentation of this regulation alongside the leader of Comuns, Jéssica Albiach.

"Sabadell's revenues are going like a shot". Marc Armengol presented this Friday his first accounts as CEO of the Catalan bank, in which the entity obtained a net profit of 971 million euros in the first half of the year, 0.5% less than the previous year. It should be noted that the results still include the contribution of the British subsidiary TSB, which changed hands in May and now belongs to Santander.

In his conviction to maintain the trade war, Donald Trump has announced a new tariff package that replaces the universal taxes that the Supreme Court annulled in February. The US president has signed a new executive order establishing levies of between 10% and 12.5% on more than 60 countries, including members of the European Union, China, and Mexico. The leader justifies this as retaliation against these states for not having taken sufficient measures to control imports of goods produced through forced labor. Furthermore, hours later, Trump also accused the EU of harming American companies through multimillion-dollar fines and threatened to impose a new tariff "as soon as possible".

"It is difficult to explain that someone does not want their liabilities reduced." This is how the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, defended the partial debt write-off for the autonomous communities in the face of the total amendments from the PP and Vox, which failed in Congress thanks to the votes of the plurinational majority. For Arcadi España, a breathing space is needed for a good part of the communities, which are the administrations that bear the expenses of the welfare state, but many, like Catalonia and the Valencian Community, are underfunded and still struggling from the economic crisis a decade ago.

The President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, has presented the ten finalist proposals for the new design of the euro banknotes. European citizens have until September 21 to vote for their preferred option [this is the link to take the survey] and they are expected to begin printing in the coming years, although the financial institution has not set a specific date.

This Saturday, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge began a procedure to disqualify the Catalan Holaluz as an electricity marketer. The reasons behind the start of the process were unknown. Now, as advanced by the FiveDays and ARA has been able to confirm, the reason that would have motivated the ministry to undertake the process has been a non-payment of six million euros to different distributors. Specifically, Holaluz's debt is four million euros to the subsidiaries of Endesa's networks and it also has one million euros pending payment to Iberdrola and Naturgy.

Breath of fresh air for the Valencian Ford plant, which has guaranteed its short-term continuity: thanks to an agreement with the Chinese automotive company Geely, they will create a joint venture and share ownership of the factory.

An important part of the costs that companies assume to improve salaries in line with inflation is not reaching the pockets of workers. This is how the Catalan employers' association for small and medium-sized enterprises, Pimec, details it in a report published this Thursday dedicated to the so-called "fiscal drag, or progressivity in the cold. It is the dysfunction that arises when salary increases associated with price increases do not have a fiscal replica in the form of IRPF deflation. "A perversion occurs, and that is that we raise salaries, but this does not translate into more purchasing power," denounced the president of the business association, Antoni Cañete.

The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce has revised its growth forecasts for the Catalan economy upwards, but with caution. With the outbreak of the armed conflict in the Middle East at the beginning of this year, most economic institutions cut their growth forecasts in view of the negative impact the conflict would have on the global economy, but in the end the negative effects have been less severe. Despite this, the head of the entity's studies department, Joan Ramon Rovira, insisted that the international context is "very volatile", which is why forecasts can change rapidly.

The Tax Agency of Catalonia (ATC), linked to the Department of Economy, has recovered 333 million euros that taxpayers had avoided paying to public coffers during 2025, 13% more than the previous year. The study by the Generalitat presented this Thursday only refers to taxes that it has ceded and that, therefore, the Catalan treasury is tasked with collecting.

New fines from the European Commission against a major US tech company. Brussels announced this Thursday two economic sanctions totaling 890 million against Google for restricting competition in its own services and, therefore, violating the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The Spanish government has presented the candidacy of the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, to run for the general director of the International Labour Organization (ILO). It is the United Nations body responsible for promoting "decent work" and "social justice", and Díaz aspires to become the first woman – and first Spanish representative – at the head of the institution.

The meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has been transitional. After raising interest rates by about 0.25 percentage points last month, Frankfurt has avoided making a move while awaiting developments in the Middle East and has kept them at 2.25% this Thursday.

Key days for the future of the 86 workers who make up the Leche Pascual workforce in Gurb (Osona). After the Castilian company sealed the sale of the plant to the Catalan Casa Tarradellas, the dairy company's factory has been partially dismantled for months and the handover will take place on July 31. However, the workers' future remains uncertain: although there has been talk of an eventual incorporation into Casa Tarradellas, currently the buyer's offers do not convince the staff, as the conditions they propose are not precise enough. remains uncertain: while an eventual incorporation into Casa Tarradellas has been discussed, currently the buyer's offers do not convince the staff, as the conditions they propose are not precise enough.

An artificial intelligence model from OpenAI, the North American multinational creator of ChatGPT, caused an "unprecedented incident" in global cybersecurity. As the company acknowledged in a statement, one of its training models broke free from its limitations and attacked Hugging Face, a company also dedicated to AI.

Sumar announced this Wednesday that it has agreed with the PSOE on the extension of rents until 2028 through a new housing decree that will also include tax incentives for owners, an indispensable measure to achieve the text to be finally approved with the favorable vote of Junts in Congress.

After obtaining record profits of 2,023 million euros last year, Naturgy's profits continue to rise in 2026. During this first semester, the energy company's earnings have increased by 5.9% compared to the same period in 2025, reaching 1,215 million, as reported this Wednesday to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

Condis has become Menorcanized. The company landed on the blue and white island a month ago after the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) authorized the acquisition of Dispreu Logística, the manager of the Binipreu supermarket chain in Menorca. With this operation, the company based in Montcada i Reixac will take control of the eight establishments that Binipreu has in Menorca: three in Maó; two in Es Castell; one in Alaior, one in Es Migjorn Gran, and another in Ferreries, as well as two logistics platforms in Maó and Alaior. In addition, the purchase also includes Binipreu Menorca, the island's main commercial space, with approximately 21,000 square meters, near the airport, and consisting of three floors and more than 300 free parking spaces.