The Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona has strengthened its influence among international free trade zones with the appointment of its general director as vice president of the AZFA. For its part, Banc Sabadell has deepened its roots in Catalonia with a new territorial advisory council formed by renowned business leaders, and the technology center Eurecat has renewed its general management. Consum has reorganized its executive structure, while the Barcelona Comerç association has elected a new president.

Starting this Sunday, receiving a package from companies like Shein, Temu, or AliExpress will cost two euros more. On November 1st, the two-euro (2.5 dollar) tax that Brussels has imposed on all shipments from countries outside the European Union comes into effect to try to curb the influx of Chinese products. The new customs management tax arrives on the eve of particularly intense commercial dates, such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Christmas shopping fever.

With the drop in autumn temperatures, most Catalan households have either already had to turn on the heating and stoves, or are about to do so. Faced with the rise in electricity and gas bills, however, now is a good time to consider which are the best systems to heat a home with the minimum possible consumption.

The Valencian supermarket cooperative Consum has launched a new logistics platform in the Zona Franca of Barcelona to manage the waste generated by its supermarkets. The 9,330-square-meter facility has received an investment of 12.4 million euros and employs around fifty workers. As detailed by the company this Wednesday in a statement, it is estimated that the space will manage, each month, a total of 800 tons of cardboard, 50 tons of plastic, 140,000 pallets, and 800,000 reusable containers.

The Spanish government's Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 has opened a case against a large telecommunications company –the name is not specified– for having carried out a series of practices that are considered abusive.

In the summer, when it was already clear that the Iran war was going to be a long one, at the register of a fairly well-known coffee shop chain in Washington, a discreet sign was framed in black. "A notice to our customers: from time to time, we have to adjust our prices to reflect the rising cost of ingredients and operations." In the pastry and cake display case, it was easy to spot the slight increase. The butter cookies with chocolate, which previously cost 90 cents each, now cost a dollar.

The Bank of Spain has increased its inflation forecasts, which it places, for this year and 2027, well above the targets set by the European Central Bank (ECB). The monetary body presented its quarterly macroeconomic forecast report this Friday, in which it also forecasts the growth of the Spanish economy.

The Valencian supermarket cooperative Consum will invest 100 million euros in the construction of a new logistics platform in the city of Barcelona, as reported in a statement issued this Wednesday.

The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 has opened disciplinary proceedings against a real estate portal operating throughout the State, without disclosing which one it is, for "possible unfair commercial practices against consumers and users". According to a note from this Wednesday, the General Directorate of Consumer Affairs initiated this investigation after receiving a complaint from the Federation of Consumers and Users CECU.

The year-on-year inflation rate for the euro area stood at 3.8% in September, six tenths of a percentage point above the price increase in August, according to the preliminary reading of the data published this Friday by Eurostat, the European statistics office. The year-on-year price increase of 3.8% is the highest rise since September 2023, when the increase was 4.3%.

Olive harvest forecasts are optimistic. It is expected that this year one million six hundred thousand tons of olives could be harvested, three hundred thousand more than last year. The abundant rains in the months of January and February have been good for the tree's flowering, which could still be loaded with more fruit if it rains this autumn. This point is precisely very important: it must rain in October. "We are now in the key time of the year, because the olive tree needs moisture in the ground; if it does not rain this month of October it will be difficult to reach the forecast we have made of one million six hundred thousand tons of olives", states producer Paco González, from one of the large production companies in Jaén, Aceites Guadalimar, the world's leading producer of olive oil, which sells to Catalan companies. This is also confirmed by Catalan producers such as Olis Macià, from Artesa de Segre, where they explain that this year the difference between dry land and irrigated land will be significant due to the lack of rain throughout the summer. "In the irrigated fields, on the other hand, we have many olives, very good production, and that is why we are forecasting a large and good quantity of oil", says Jordi Macià. For his part, the president of the DOP Siurana, Pere Albà, states that it is too early to make forecasts, but that in mid-October the mills will begin to be open to produce the first olive oil, the raw oil, which is always at a higher price than the rest.

The rise in fuel prices –provoked by the sharp increase in oil prices as a result of the war in Iran– gives no respite and triggers inflation in Spain. Thus, this September, the cost of living for families has stood at 4.9% above the same month last year, the highest rate since February 2023, according to advance data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI, the indicator that measures the evolution of the prices of goods and services consumed by families) published this Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The price of gasoline maintains its upward trend in Spain and has added its twelfth consecutive week of increases, hitting a new annual high, while diesel has resumed the hikes that thus eliminate the effect of a large part of the tax cuts due to the activation of the safeguard mechanism in September.

The cost of living for families continues to rise due to the increase in energy prices. In August, the prices of the set of consumer goods and services in Catalonia shot up by 4% annually, the highest figure since January 2023, but lower than the Spanish average, according to data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published this Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Imagine entering the website of an appliance store to buy a refrigerator. The company, through your personal data, knows if you live in a rented property or if you own your home, detects your zip code, and recognizes if you have children. It also knows what you do for a living, what brand your mobile phone is, and how many times a month you go to a restaurant. Taking all these variables into account, it shows you a price just for you, different from what might appear to the neighbor next door or your friend who lives three streets away. In the end, the goal is to charge you the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a product according to the calculations of an algorithm. It is what is known as surveillance pricing.

The summer of historic results in tourism that the sector predicted in spring. This July, spending by foreigners in Catalonia has for the first time exceeded the threshold of 3.7 billion euros, according to data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) this Tuesday. The increase in total spending has also been reflected in the average consumption of each visitor, which has also reached a new high, surpassing 1,500 euros per stay for the first time.

The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda has imposed a fine of one million euros on the car rental company Avis for charging its clients for fine management. As detailed this Wednesday by the department led by Pablo Bustinduy, the company charged a fee of between 33.88 and 45 euros under the heading "administrative sanction management expenses" to users who had committed a traffic violation while using a rental vehicle.

Technology, new consumption habits and changes in the ways we relate have ushered postal mail into a new era. For the first time, in 2025 in Spain, more packages than letters were sent, according to the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC). Globally, postal sector revenues are rising.

The Spanish economy maintained its high growth rate of recent years in the second quarter of 2026, above the European average. However, at the same time, the cost of living for families continues to rise, and this July will close at its highest levels since May 2024.

The European Commission has announced a fine of 550 million euros to the Chinese e-commerce platform AliExpress for the sale of illegal products online to European customers. The Community executive has concluded in an investigation that the Asian company does not comply with the Community directive on digital rights, because it does not "diligently" assess or mitigate the risks related to the products offered and purchasable on its website. And for this reason, Brussels urges it to adopt measures and threatens it with new additional economic sanctions if it disobeys the demands of the Community authorities.