Spain is the country with the seventh highest interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) in the European Union, according to data published this Friday by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), which puts the minimum remuneration paid in Spain at 1,260 euros in 12 payments.. After the last increase agreed between the Government and unions in January of this year, the Iberian country has advanced one position in the European ranking, overtaking Slovenia.

The minimum wage in Spain currently stands at 1,080 euros in 14 payments, an amount that Eurostat adjusts every twelve months of the year to facilitate comparison with the rest of the community partners.. According to the data updated this Friday, Spain is among the eight European countries where this remuneration exceeds 1,000 euros per month, although it is only ahead of Slovenia, whose minimum wage is 1,203.36 euros per month.

The Spanish brand of 1,260 euros represents practically half of the minimum wage in Luxembourg, which reaches 2,508 euros and is the highest in the entire European Union. They are followed by those from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and France, which range between 1,997 and 1,747 euros per month, all of them exceeding the barrier of 1,500 euros.. Therefore, the Spanish minimum wage is the seventh highest, a position that Spain maintains when measured in terms of purchasing power.

Spain's position in the European ranking does not usually vary much, although in recent years the Spanish minimum wage has grown more than in countries with higher salaries. According to Eurostat data, the Spanish amount has increased on average by around 5% per year in the last ten years, two percentage points above the advances registered in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium or Ireland. The highest average annual growth rate of the minimum wage between July 2013 and July 2023 has been registered in Romania (12.9%), where it barely exceeds 600 euros, and the lowest, in Malta (1.7%).

In Spain, the increases in the SMI have been especially concentrated in the last five years. Specifically, since 2018 the Government chaired by Pedro Sánchez has raised this remuneration by 47%, going from 736 to 1,080 euros per month in fourteen payments (401 more euros), under the commitment to reach 60% of the average salary. The Executive of Mariano Rajoy also raised it by 7% in 2017, although previously it had been practically stagnant for almost a decade.

The increases in the minimum wage undertaken in recent years have not been exclusive to Spain. Following the arrival of the pandemic, many community partners took similar steps. For example, in Germany the amount has increased by 27% compared to the second half of 2019, the same as in Portugal. In Belgium it has grown by 23% and in France, by 12.4%.

In Spain, growth has been 20% compared to 2019, after the last rise in January of this year. “I am very happy, not for the government, but for the workers. The Government of Spain fulfills one of its main commitments, which was to reach 60% of the average salary in the SMI”, said the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz at the time.. According to the Annual Labor Cost Survey published this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the annual gross salary currently stands at an average of 25,353 euros per year, that is, 1,811 euros per month, an amount on which the SMI represents 59.6%.

Faced with the increases in some countries, there are others in which there is no minimum wage, as is the case in Denmark, Italy, Australia, Finland and Sweden. There are 22 Member States that do have this tool, among which Bulgaria and Romania have the lowest amounts (399 and 604 euros per month, respectively).. Outside the EU, in the United States the minimum wage is close to 1,157 euros per month, 103 euros below the Spanish figure.

Eurostat also offers individual rankings of Member States based on the percentage of workers who earn the minimum wage in each country and the proportion of income that this amount represents compared to the median gross income.. However, the latest available data dates from 2018. Spain was then the country with the fewest workers earning a minimum wage (0.8% of the total) and the third where this remuneration represented a lower proportion of average family income (44%).

House prices are refusing to fall, despite the fact that the market is cooling off rapidly due to the strong effect of the interest rate hikes from the European Central Bank (ECB). The latest analyst to point in this direction is the Tinsa appraisal company, which prepares an index every month that reflects the evolution of prices in different segments of the real estate market.

Thus, the price of housing in Spain was still 4.6% higher in June than in the same month of 2022, although the growth rate moderated slightly from the 4.8% registered the previous month.. New and existing home prices have been rising steadily year-on-year since 2021. However, in the last eight months the pace of price increases has moderated considerably.

This is perceived with great clarity in the provincial capitals and large cities, where the rise in prices amounted to 4.1% last month, far from the 8.5% registered in November, when this market segment reached its hottest point.. By contrast, prices in metropolitan areas are proving more resilient. In June, this real estate sector registered prices 6.6% higher than those of 2022, two percentage points above the general average.

Along the same lines is the real estate segment most closely linked to international tourism.. Both on the Mediterranean coast and on the islands, the market has even registered a small acceleration in recent months. In the Mediterranean, house prices remained 4.4% higher in June in year-on-year terms, after falling back to 2.7% in March. In the case of the Balearic and Canary Islands, the price increases are at their highest levels for the whole year. Housing on the islands cost 5.8% more in June than in the same month of 2022.

The price of housing stands, in this way, at maximums not seen since July 2011, when the market was in free fall after the bursting of the real estate bubble. However, it is still 20% of the all-time highs that were reached in 2007. In provincial capitals and large cities, current prices are unprecedented since 2010.

From Tinsa, they point out that despite the fact that inflation and the ECB rate hikes have contributed to moderating prices, the resistance of employment has maintained the confidence and solvency of households. “In this context, residential demand moderates without collapsing and the average price of housing maintains its tendency towards stabilization, slowing down little by little,” says Cristina Arias, director of Tinsa's Research Service.

Sales and mortgages plummet

Up to a certain point, the resistance to lowering that housing prices are showing is surprising if one takes into account that fewer and fewer sales are closed and fewer mortgages are granted. The latest data available from notarial statistics, corresponding to the month of May, indicate that sales fell by 11.4% year-on-year, while the number of mortgages granted plummeted 24% in year-on-year terms.

With these figures it may seem paradoxical that prices continue to rise. However, if we look at the profile of the home buyer in Spain, the pieces fit better. According to the Bank of Spain, the average household that purchases a home in Spain is of high income, with members between the ages of 30 and 49, higher education, and previous assets from a certain entity.. This profile usually needs smaller mortgages and can sometimes afford to buy without a loan.

All in all, the effect of rate hikes will end up dragging prices down, although the falls will be modest. The Bank of Spain estimates that when the increases in official interest rates have been fully transferred to mortgages (so far only half of the impact has been completed), house prices will fall by a little more than 6% in two years. As a starting point, in the two years after the bursting of the bubble, the prices of housing for sale fell by 11%, although the collapse reached 59% if the minimum for housing reached in 2014 is taken as a reference.

Two years ago the Constitutional Court handed down one of the most important economic rulings of the last decade: it annulled the municipal capital gains tax, which that same year involved the collection of more than 2,000 million euros.. Now, the Supreme Court has established that the provisional or final liquidations of the municipal capital gains that had not been challenged or appealed before the resolution of the TC of October 26, 2021 cannot be claimed.

In a ruling dated July 10, the High Court closes the door for administrations to claim millions in amounts, thus agreeing with a taxpayer who claimed in Pontevedra.

The sentence that eliminated the tax, although it was announced on October 26, 2021, was not published in the Official State Gazette until the 25th of the following month, so the administrations took the opportunity to claim it during that month.

In this sense, the Supreme Court declares that a tax assessment not appealed before the declaration of unconstitutionality is known, is a consolidated situation and that it is not affected by the declaration of unconstitutionality of the tax, nor can it be annulled based on it. The Organic Law of the Constitutional Court, indicates the sentence, expressly provides for the possibility of publication of the ruling before the mandatory publication by the BOE.

Application of other sentences

However, the Supreme Court adds that it is possible to annul tax assessments by applying other unconstitutionality rulings in which the Constitutional Court did not limit the temporary effects of its decision, such as the cases of property transfer assessments in which there was no profit, or when the tax is confiscatory because it absorbs all the profit.

The TC annulled various aspects of the municipal capital gains tax, understanding that “even if the fee is not greater than the capital gain actually obtained, it is excessive or exaggerated and could injure the principle of non-confiscation.”

In other words, it rejected the fact that it can be claimed with retroactive effect, so that the annulment of the tax calculation excludes those paid, liquidated or judged, and those that have not been denounced.

Moody's recognizes Cepsa's “advanced level” in terms of sustainability, placing it in the highest category.

Cepsa reaches 65 points, compared to the 61 obtained in 2022, an increase that responds in part to the actions and good practices framed in its 2030 'Positive Motion' strategy, with which the company aspires to become a key benchmark in the energy transition, leading the production of green hydrogen and biofuels and being a key player in sustainable mobility in Spain and Portugal.

Carmen de Pablo, CFO and Director of Strategy and ESG at Cepsa, highlighted: “Our rating in the Moody's evaluation, considered one of the most relevant by the financial community, allows Cepsa to continue advancing, identifying growth opportunities and reinforcing its commitments to sustainable development”.

De Pablo added that “according to our Sustainability Plan, presented in the first quarter of the year, we have a clear roadmap to continue incorporating the best ESG practices in each of our actions and thus provide shared value to the communities where we are present”.

Cepsa's Sustainability Plan, entitled Promoting Positive Impact, is based on eight pillars with which the company includes a series of commitments such as reducing its scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions by 55% by 2030, 20% of freshwater withdrawal in water stress areas by 2025, or increasing the intensity of the circularity of waste from its operations by 50% to 2030, compared to 2019 levels.

5,000 companies evaluated

Moody's has developed this ESG evaluation with the aim of assessing the management and capacity of companies in the face of sustainability risks and opportunities, as well as their progress in all matters related to this area.. The rating agency has evaluated nearly 5,000 companies taking into account 24 aspects of ESG.

This type of independent assessment demonstrates Cepsa's strong commitment to sustainability and its stakeholders. In this sense, recently, EcoVadis, the reference rating used by companies to assess the sustainability of their supply chain, has also recognized the energy company with the gold medal, placing it among the 3% of the best companies in its sector worldwide.

A strategy structured by ESG criteria Cepsa considers the management of ESG aspects key. Within the framework of its 2030 Strategy, Positive Motion, Cepsa aspires to reach zero net emissions before 2050. To do this, the company will invest between 7 and 8 billion euros until 2030, of which close to 60% will be for sustainable businesses linked to the production of green hydrogen and biofuels.

The signature of new mortgages for the purchase of a home sank 24% in the interannual rate in May, its biggest decrease since January 2021, and the average starting interest rate was 3.15%, the highest since April 2017, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

With the new decline in May, which has worsened compared to the previous months, the firm of new home mortgages has chained four consecutive months of decline in a context marked by the rise in interest rates to curb inflation and the consequent increase in the cost of financing.

In May, 33,398 new home mortgages were recorded. Despite the drop compared to a year earlier, the home mortgage firm shows a month-on-month rise of 23.5% compared to the previous month, April. However, so far this year it has accumulated a fall of 12%.

After the 8.8% drop recorded in December 2022, the home mortgage firm started the year with a rise of close to 3%, however, after it fell, more and more accentuated: -2% in February, -15.7% in March, -18.3% in April and -24% in May

Highest interest rate since 2017

The average interest rate on new home mortgages rose more than one point from the previous year to 3.15%, its highest level for six years, and the average term stood at 25 years. Specifically, the average interest rate at the start was 2.79% for variable-rate home mortgages and 3.4% for fixed-rate ones.

In May, 62% of the mortgages on homes constituted were at a fixed rate and the remaining 38% at a variable rate.

An average amount of 140,000 euros

The capital borrowed to acquire a house exceeded 4,735 million in May, 27.5% less than in the same month of 2022 but 27.8% more than last April. So far this year it has fallen by 13.3%.

In addition, the average amount of a home mortgage stood at 141,798 euros in May, 4.6% less than the same month of the previous year. However, compared to the previous month it grew by 3.5%. Even so, in the first five months of 2023, the average amount accumulates a fall of 1.6%.

Mortgages constituted on homes concentrated 65% of the total capital lent in the month of May.

In addition, the total number of mortgages with changes in their conditions registered in the property registers was 12,414, 9% less than the previous year.

In May there were 9,796 novations, 13.3% less. For its part, the number of operations that change entities increased by 10.4% and the number of mortgages in which the owner of the property changed increased by 19.5%.

Of the 12,414 mortgages with changes, 36.4% were due to changes in interest rates. After that, the percentage of fixed interest mortgages increased from 13.4% to 37.4%, while variable interest decreased from 85.6% to 61.3%.

The Euribor was the rate to which the highest percentage of variable-rate mortgages referenced, both before the change (80.9%) and after (58.8%).

After the change in conditions, the average interest on variable-rate loans increased 0.3 points and that of fixed-rate mortgages rose 0.3 points. Mortgages on housing fell in all communities except in Cantabria (6.5%) and Asturias, where they did not change.

The greatest decreases occurred in the Canary Islands (–42.4%); Galicia (–36%); Balearic Islands (–34.3%); Madrid (-31%) or Catalonia (-30.6%).