The latest data on the economic weight of the different autonomous regions in the Spanish total have generated the usual reading: Madrid increases it and Catalonia manages to maintain it. It is a correct conclusion, but it is convenient to put it into perspective, both in terms of time and the European context.

Noelia Acosta is the second vice president of the Association of Chartered Accountants (auditors) and a partner at Baker Tilly. Acosta, 49, asserts that her profession, to which she has been dedicated for 25 years, is subject to many regulatory changes that often arise in the wake of financial scandals. An expert in measuring the sustainability of companies and entities, she receives Companiesat the collegiate headquarters, the Torre Moré, a modernist mansion in the Barcelona neighborhood of Pedralbes, remodeled by the architect Òscar Tusquets, whom this organization, with some 2,000 members, will pay tribute to next Wednesday. Precisely on that day, they will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the creation of the association and its headquarters with challenges such as artificial intelligence (AI) and improving the balance between men and women. In the group as a whole, there is still a significant gap: 80% men and 20% women among the members. Among practitioners, the difference is reduced among those at the base: 65% men and 35% women. On the other hand, regarding executive partners, the presence of women is below 30%.

The European Union is making a major commitment to strategic autonomy in the face of the growing threat that China poses to the competitiveness of the community bloc. Brussels' latest legislative proposals to boost industry include a criterion to prioritize European products over those manufactured outside community borders in public tenders in strategic sectors such as automotive, steel, clean technologies, semiconductors, and electric vehicles. It is the requirement known as made in EU (made in the European Union, in English).

Significant step for Salvat laboratories. The Catalan family pharmaceutical company has decided to concentrate its entire production capacity at the factory it has in Alcalá de Henares, in Madrid. The move from the Esplugues de Llobregat plant will be progressive until 2030, according to its new strategic plan approved in July. The company is open to negotiating possibilities of geographical mobility for its staff "responsibly, maintaining dialogue with the legal representatives of the workers during the different phases of the transition".

Catalonia now has a roadmap to decarbonize its industry. It was presented this Friday by the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, at an event at the DFactory in the Zona Franca, Catalonia's major hub for Industry 4.0. Following the work carried out by the Catalan Energy Institute (Icaen), which analyzed all sectors and subsectors, the conclusion is that decarbonizing Catalan industry will require an additional investment—that is, beyond what companies already spend in their normal operations—of 9.5 billion euros. This investment should be made between now and 2050.

The Russian government has ordered the temporary transfer of the management of the assets of the Swiss food group Nestlé, the French supermarket chain Auchan –Alcampo in the Spanish market– and the also French Leroy Merlin, specialized in DIY material, to the company L.E.V. Management. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is thus responding to the sanctions of European countries against the Russian regime for the invasion of Ukraine, in particular Switzerland, a traditionally neutral country.

The Alsina Group, through its parent company, Encofrados J. Alsina SA, has carried out a merger by absorption of its subsidiary Servicio de Encofrados Alisan SA, which specializes in providing services in various areas of Spain. With this operation, the family company dedicated to the design, manufacture, sale, and rental of formwork systems and solutions for concrete structures, streamlines its structure and gains efficiency with the goal of reaching 250 million euros in turnover by 2032, as planned. Last year, its turnover was 152 million, with an increase of 22% compared to the previous financial year.

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.

The productive capacity of the Catalan industry remained practically flat in the month of July, while the Spanish one accelerated strongly. According to the latest data corresponding to the industrial production index, published by the National Statistics Institute this Thursday, the Catalan manufacturing sector accelerated only by 0.3% during the seventh month of the year, while the State average climbed by 2.6%.

The now-famous report published by Mario Draghi on the competitiveness of the European Union revolved around one idea: if the EU wanted to remain an economic power, it had to modernize its economy and reduce its strategic dependencies on China and the United States. Two years to the day since the report's publication, most of the homework remains to be done. Of the measures proposed by the former president of the European Central Bank, Brussels has implemented a meager 15%.

It is not at all strange that the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa; the Minister of Industry, Jordi Hereu, and the leader of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, among others, have hastened to highlight the importance of Seat not only in industrial terms but also in terms of employment. In a changing world where industries that seemed to have their perpetuity guaranteed find themselves in full transformation (in the automotive sector, from the combustion engine to the electric vehicle), the Volkswagen (VW) group is considering the future of this historic brand, which has been part of the Catalan and Spanish economy since the 50s of the last century. However, over the last few years, the brand has been losing ground in favor of a newer and more modern one, Cupra, created in 2018 as an independent brand.

The executive chairman of Telefónica, Marc Murtra, has championed the importance of the defense industry before Catalan business leaders. The chief executive of the major Spanish telecommunications company, also former chairman of the industry giant Indra, asserted that "all democratic countries must have a relevant defense industry." At a meeting with Catalan business leaders organized by the employers' association Foment del Treball, which served to inaugurate the economic year in Barcelona, Murtra stated that building defensive capabilities is "especially relevant for democracy," since democratic countries "are recipients of aggression."

The Catalan company Saplex is undertaking the biggest investment in its history. The company, specialized in the manufacture of garbage bags and food preservation bags, will dedicate 11 million euros this 2026 to adapt its factory in Canovelles (Vallès Oriental), as well as to incorporate new machinery to expand production capacity. Saplex seeks, in this way, to "respond to the sustained growth in demand" for its products.

Construction and services boosted the Catalan economy during the second quarter. Specifically, according to data from the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia (Idescat) published this Friday, the gross domestic product (GDP, the indicator that measures the size of an economy) grew by 3% in Catalonia compared to the same period a year ago. The figure places the Catalan economy above the increase experienced in the rest of the State. The numbers are remarkable in a complicated context marked by the effects derived from the war in Iran and, above all, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

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.

When speaking of the origins of the Catalan pharmaceutical industry, the narrative usually focuses almost exclusively on Barcelona. This is a logical association. Companies like Uriach, Viñas, or Esteve, along with the establishment of the first German pharmaceutical multinationals, eventually turned the Catalan capital into the main drug production center in Spain. However, this view often sidelines a little-known but highly significant phenomenon: the role played by the Tarragona region, and particularly Reus, in the early stages of this industrial activity.

Ezequiel (Zequi) Giró, president of Grup Giró, shares the same name as his grandfather, the company's founder, and his father. Around four out of every ten fruit and vegetable mesh containers worldwide have come from the factories of this family business from Badalona, which celebrated its first century last year. With its annual mesh production, one could travel more than 36 times around the Earth or go to the Moon and back almost twice. Production will increase from the end of next year, when a plant in Morocco, which will be the sixth, plus two more for machinery, will begin operating, with an investment of 20 million. This year, the group is looking towards 200 million in turnover, after closing 2025 with consolidated sales of 190 million and an operating result of 25 million, explain at the company's central headquarters in Badalona, Giró and his nephew, Àlex Rivière Giró, who is the CEO.

The Chamber of Commerce has just published a note that questions a fundamental aspect of thePhoenix Report. To simplify, the report states that the Catalan economy has a productivity problem that makes it unsustainable, and that the main cause is one: the disproportionate growth of a few unproductive export sectors that can grow thanks to the massive incorporation of labor remunerated with low wages. On the other hand, the Chamber's document concludes that the productivity problem – which no one doubts – would not be concentrated in this type of sector, but rather would be generalized throughout the Catalan economy. For his part, Enric Fernández, chief economist at CaixaBank, agreed with this from "an article in ARA in which he affirmed that “the data […] confirm [that] the productivity problem is transversal”.The first problem with this conclusion is that it is wrong. The second is even more serious, and that is that it leads to inaction. To make ourselves understood: the debate is whether the illness has a localized cause that allows for a focused intervention or if the evil is diffuse and, therefore, what the sick person needs is rest and good food.Why is the conclusion false? The Chamber bases it on the analysis of the productivity of the different sectors of the Catalan economy. For lack of better data, it considers the ten macrosectors provided by Eurostat. It is a path that the authors of the Fènix Report embarked on and which did not lead us very far. So that the reader can grasp the problem, the ten macrosectors are so diverse that it makes no sense to compare their productivities (apparently, that of real estate activities would be five times higher than that of industry!). To top it off, tourism is not one of these ten sectors. The Chamber systematically identifies it with the sector “Wholesale and retail trade, transport, accommodation and food service activities”. This is a very risky identification, as this sector is five times larger than tourism (for example, only 8% of retail trade is aimed at tourism). A more fertile approach must start from the fact that the productivity of an economy is determined by that of its exporting activities, even if these only represent a relatively modest fraction of the total. It may seem paradoxical, but this fact is what explains why, even though string quartets, McDonald's workers, chambermaids, and airport firefighters do exactly the same thing in the same way everywhere, they are much more productive in Switzerland than in Catalonia (and therefore earn much more there).Starting from this point, Catalonia's productivity is determined by that of its manufacturing and its tourism, as this is fundamentally what we export.

China's decision to restrict the export of rare earths, permanent magnets, and other critical minerals to Japan has turned an industrial dependency known for years into a top-tier problem for the Japanese economy. These materials are indispensable for manufacturing semiconductors, electronic components, batteries, electric motors, or defense systems, so any interruption in their supply threatens some of the most competitive sectors of Japanese industry.

The Leche Pascual group has initiated this Friday a regulation of employment (ERO) to lay off the 80 workers from its Gurb (Osona) plant, partially dismantled for months after the company reached an agreement with Casa Tarradellas for the sale of the factory.