For days now, pensions and the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) have come into play in the run-up to the 29-N election campaign. First, Vox questioned the sustainability of the pension system, and this week the PP got itself into a muddle with the future rise in benefits and the system's public model. Meanwhile, Pedro Sánchez's executive is positioning itself as the sole guarantor of both. In fact, they are two of the economic cards it does not hesitate to play.

Pedro Sánchez "arrives prepared" in Brussels to face the migration rebukes from his partners, including those from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, according to diplomatic sources. This week's leaders' summit will be the first time the Spanish Prime Minister has met with the Italian Prime Minister since the Ceuta crisis this summer. At the time, the leader's response to the massive influx of immigrants opened the floodgates for a confrontation over migration. Italy suspended free movement with Spanish travelers –a measure replicated by the Spanish government– and initiated a spiral of confrontation that has served to vindicate its model of external border control.

Discussions about the housing crisis begin with economic arguments at vermouth time, move on to politics, social complexity, management in the historical sphere, and immigration. By dessert time, the conversation is still not over. Almost always during the conversation, morality, legitimacy, and values also come into play.

Seat models continue to sell –and a lot– throughout the Spanish territory. Although their future is up in the air given the company's plans not to electrify its models, its product range is consolidating in the State: according to the data released this Wednesday by the Catalan company, the brand totaled 52,660 registrations between January and September, which represents 4.3% more than in the same period of 2025.

While current events are marked by the housing crisis, an auction platform has brought a historic three-story building in the old town of Valls to the market with a starting price of 1 euro. For less than what a loaf of bread or a latte costs, Escrapalia is offering a 368-square-meter property with a garage and attic in the capital of the Alt Camp region. However, to live in it, a comprehensive renovation is required.

An OpenAI engineer has been arrested and charged in the United States for hiding a recording device in an executive meeting room at the company's San Francisco office to intercept confidential conversations. The case came to light after the company announced on X this Wednesday that it had discovered a "sophisticated" hidden recording device and had alerted the FBI. According to the federal prosecutor's office, the 35-year-old Saudi engineer, Abdulrahman Alfozan, allegedly placed the device behind a television and consulted artificial intelligence tools to prepare for its installation.

The cost of living for families continues to rise due to the increase in energy prices –particularly fuels–, and it is at its highest since February 2023 for the second consecutive month. Specifically, in September, the prices of all consumer goods and services in Catalonia soared by 4.5% compared to the same month a year ago, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data published this Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

A thousand farmers paralyzed the heart of Barcelona this Wednesday with their tractors as well as buses and private vehicles in a demonstration to demand immediate solutions to the "structural crisis" situation the sector is experiencing. The demonstration, called by Unió de Pagesos, mobilized around 200 tractors—according to the organizers' data—coming from various points of the Catalan territory that gathered in front of the headquarters of the State government delegation, the Department of Agriculture, and the Palau de la Generalitat. The march blocked a large part of Passeig de Gràcia and Via Laietana for more than four hours—with impacts on different bus lines—and also caused slow-moving traffic in both directions of the Ronda Litoral when the farmers were returning home.

Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, the Catalan quantum computing company that ranks among the European leaders in its sector, announced this Wednesday an initial closing of its Series A funding round, valued at 19.6 million euros. This first operation was led by defense giant Indra, which invested 10 million euros through IndraMind, the group's technological initiative that develops sovereign artificial intelligence. It also served for the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT), the investment vehicle of the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function, to double down on its commitment to the company with a new investment of 9.6 million.

The president of the Port of Barcelona, José Alberto Carbonell; the CEO of the Grimaldi Group in Spain, Mario Massarotti, and the Director of Institutional Relations, Miguel Pardo, inaugurated this Tuesday the new vertical parking facility at the port with a photovoltaic plant on the roof. The new parking facility, located next to the Grimaldi Terminal, has a capacity for nearly 2,000 new vehicles and more than 6,200 square meters of solar panels, which will produce 1,695 MWh annually, an amount exceeding the terminal's consumption.

The major trade unions are calling for a minimum wage (SMI) increase of at least 7% by 2027, placing it above 1,300 euros per month. In a joint press conference held by the UGT and CCOO in Madrid, both organizations defended an increase that would update the threshold to at least 1,306 gross euros paid over 14 installments, or 1,524 euros over twelve. Currently, the state minimum wage is 1,221 gross euros in fourteen payments, which is equivalent to 1,424 euros in twelve monthly installments.

Globalization and the rise of remote work have reformulated the linguistic component of the Catalan labor market. This is revealed by a study from Pimec and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) presented this very Tuesday, which points out that English now surpasses Catalan as the language in which job offers are published in the country. In fact, this has been happening since the pandemic: 2020 was the last year in which there were still more job proposals written in Catalan than in English, according to the same barometer.

The European Commission anticipates that the upcoming vote in the European Parliament to ratify the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur (comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay) will be "hard-fought". While there is still no defined date for the European Parliament to issue its position – it is estimated that it will take at least a year, pending a judicial resolution from the Court of Justice of the European Union–, sources from the community executive highlight the strong "political burden" of the debate and point out that there will be "many factors" that could enter into the equation.

How much does a 'tallat' cost in Barcelona? It depends on the neighborhood. A coffee that is part of the routine of thousands of people can also serve to observe the economic differences of a city. With this idea, the Barcelona-based studio Domestic Data Streamers and the research center Cedra have promoted The 'tallat' census, a research and data project, but also an interactive experience to explore what the price of a coffee says about the place where it is consumed.

Catalonia retreats slightly in the incorporation of new commercial companies in August. Business creation has decreased by 1.1% in year-on-year terms in the Principality in the eighth month of the year, according to data published this Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). Thus, in the analyzed period, 1,469 new businesses were incorporated in the country. Despite the retreat, it is the fourth best figure for an August in the historical series, surpassed only by the two previous years, 2025 and 2024, and by 2016.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) raises the growth forecast for the Spanish economy to 2.5% for this 2026—four tenths of a percentage point more compared to July– and maintains the outlook for the global economy with an increase of 3.1% (an extra tenth). Regarding the euro zone, the increase is a moderate 1.1%, although this is two tenths more than in the IMF's projections in the seventh month of the year.

The stock market debut of Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is one of the most anticipated events of the year. Just months after the record broken by thepublic market entry of SpaceX, Elon Musk's aerospace and artificial intelligence brand, the company led by Dario Amodei could post even more spectacular figures: while Musk managed to list with a valuation of 1.77 trillion dollars, everything suggests that its competitor could reach two trillion. This is anticipated by the initial public offering (IPO) document, leaked by the Reuters agency. The same agency recently pointed out that the IPO could be resolved after the midterm elections in the United States, scheduled for November 3rd.

“Right now we have no plans to electrify Seat models”. The CEO of the Catalan industrial company, Markus Haupt, assured this Monday in Paris that the brand does not plan to electrify any of its cars, despite stating that “the future is electric”. Thus, Haupt pointed out that “regulation” will be what dictates the future of the Seat brand in the face of demanding European regulations to decarbonize the automotive industry. It will also be necessary to see what the evolution of the market is, which is increasingly betting on electric vehicles: “Even if there is a second period of flexibility (regarding emission regulations), we have to see if customers in the main markets will continue to buy combustion vehicles”.

Laws are debated and approved to be applied. It makes no sense to publish them only for them to become a dead letter. The Food Chain Law, which came into force in January 2014, was reformed in 2021 in order to restrict abusive commercial practices. The text establishes that the purchase price set in the contract must always cover the effective production cost of the primary producer, in this case the farmer or the livestock breeder. It is expressly prohibited to buy below what it has cost to produce the food. It is a standard that the countryside demanded for a long time to be applied.

The Generalitat is launching an unprecedented offensive in the wine sector to assess whether grapes are being purchased below their production cost. As ARA has learned, the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food is investigating a total of 50 contracts suspected of infringing the Food Chain Law 16/2021, the state-level regulation that prohibits this practice. As sources close to the department point out, the inspections began in August, some of which were prompted by complaints from farmers, organizations, or other professionals in the sector, and others initiated ex officio.