Barcelona has become a magnet for international companies' hubs. The latest to announce that it will establish its new development centre in the Catalan capital is pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The hub will focus on accelerating the development of next-generation drugs in the field of rare diseases. The project will create up to 100 specialised R&D jobs over the next two years and has the support of ACCIÓ, the Catalan government's agency for business competitiveness.

Nissan's reindustrialization committee, which has to decide which company will replace the automaker, has entered its last phase with only three months left before the three factories the Japanese brand has in Catalonia close definitively and leave 2,500 workers jobless.