While the world, some of it, waits with trepidation to see if Mariano Rajoy pushes the Article 155 nuclear button and constitutionally annexes Catalonia, a far smaller part of the world may have been unaware of Rajoy imperialist intervention in the Balearics. This didn't cause ripples to turn into independence-affirming tidal waves washing across from Barcelona, as it was all on account of this imperialism having been confined to the singularly dull political hold exerted over the Balearic accounts. Yes, in the political world, even one as insane as Spain's, accounting is as yawn-inducing as it is in the real world.
The Balearic government had been in the process of edging towards its own Article 155 - the average number of days to pay suppliers. The halfway mark was breached in July last year: 83 days and going up. It was at this point that the Rajoy imperialist finance legion marched on the regional accounts and occupied them. Did anyone really notice? Well no, because no one was remotely bothered, with the exception of suppliers suffering serious cash flow crises thanks to the Balearic administration.
The quest for budgetary stability, an issue of mind-numbing tedium equal to anything that accounting can offer, was the reason. Stability included the hitherto alien concept of paying people with something approaching reasonable alacrity. So persuasive was the finance legion that within twelve months of its occupation, the accounts revealed that average payment time was more than a quarter of what it had been. The transformation has been such that there has to be more of an explanation than that the government's purchase ledger clerks had been roused from their comas. Might one therefore offer the prospect of a better financing deal from Madrid as the real reason? One might well do so.
Tough though it currently is to love anything Rajoyist hovering above the Balearic administration, there is the realpolitik of finally securing this damn financing deal. If it were to be obtained, we should all be extremely grateful. We wouldn't have to listen to the government going on about it on every available occasion. Or would we? Well we would, because triumphalism and an upcoming election would mean it being shouted from here until May 2019.
For those who believe that the Partido Popular will simply just have to show up at the next election and expect to be able to move into the Consolat del Mar government HQ electorally unmolested, I would advise some caution. On the principle that the voter is mainly interested in the economy alone, then quite remarkably the PSOE-led pact has achieved the seemingly impossible. It hasn't made a total pig's ear of things.
The irony is that it has little or nothing to do with the government as such. It can thank Madrid for being able to now boast that it takes three weeks to pay up when it used to take three months. A control of public finances, notwithstanding the massive debt of course, is due to exigencies from Madrid. And if Madrid goes all soft and delivers that Holy Grail of a better financing deal, then the Rajoy administration will truly have helped Armengol to a second term. Having itself done virtually nothing, the pact can claim economic responsibility and economic success.
There are other ironies, none more obvious than the fact that Balearic economic growth and improved employment stats owe virtually everything to what the government now considers a curse - a tourism boom that put the boom in the economic boom. It wasn't anything else and it wasn't anything that the government had any part in. It just happened.
Given all this, what could possibly go wrong and mean a clutching of 2019 electoral defeat from the jaws of victory? Well, there is that growth. There may just be more of a slowdown than forecasters suggest. Why? Because of government policy to attempt to turn boom into bust. Showing its total lack of gratitude for something it wasn't responsible for, by instituting certain tourism policies - and we all know which ones - the government may well just signal its own downfall.
And then there are the realities of growth and economic recovery on the streets and in the households. The latest Gadeso survey of the public's confidence in the economy reveals only marginal gains in some aspects. A mere 17% of households classify their financial status as good. Three-quarters of respondents say that salaries are not good enough. More still point to the proliferation of temporary jobs.
The government might hope that the wage deal for the hotel sector will provide a brighter outlook, but the fact is that the government in itself has had minimal impact on citizen well-being. And that wage deal may prove to be less of a winner next year than the government might wish, thanks to the only real influence it is now exerting on the economy.
Showing posts with label Balearic economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Balearic economy. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Will The Circle Be Unbroken? - Unemployment in the Balearics
The psychological barrier has been breached, but the regional government would like to suggest that it has not been. The national statistics office would beg to differ. According to it, unemployment in the Balearics has not only crossed the 100,000 Rubicon, it has embarked on the invasion and is scaling the ramparts. Ok, this is an over-statement; it's not as if a point of no return has been arrived at, but it sure as hell must feel like it to those in the dole queues. The statistics office maintains that the number out of work stands at 112,000, one in ten - approximately - of the islands' population. Or to put it another way, at just under 20%, one in five of the registered working population, and that figure doesn't take account of the self-employed who are also feeling the pinch.
The government reckons that unemployment has peaked. It may have, for the time being, though an improvement in figures is unlikely to show up for some while, until seasonal employment kicks in. Even that, however, disguises the true picture, and that is the lack of employment opportunities which summer work only helps to obscure. Recession has exacerbated the situation, clearly it has, but it has also exposed the fault lines of the local economy - ones that should have been obvious to anyone, even politicians, seduced by the boom times but apparently incapable of counteracting seasonality.
The national government, meanwhile, is flailing around, desperate to find any measure that might reduce its massive budget deficit and to assure the markets that the Spanish economy is not the same basket case as Greece's; oh how the temporarily mighty have fallen. One ploy is to raise the pension age to 67. Fine, assuming there's any work for the 65 year-olds to continue with. Another is to increase indirect taxation. For an island - Mallorca - and a nation for which tax avoidance is a past-time, this is insane. It might, questionably, mollify the markets, but it will do nothing for employment creation.
Mr. Bean is cutting an ever more awkward figure. When elected for his second term in 2008, Sr. Zapatero had promised full employment. There wasn't a hope in hell's chance of that, especially not as the crisis began to consume everything in its path. And even were there "full employment", what would it look like? A few months work as a waiter and then back to the off-season dole queues, paid for by the burdensome levels of social security that are a brake on much employment creation. Were there to be an election now, chances are that the PSOE would be obliterated, bringing into office - by default - the singularly uninspiring figure of the PP's climate-change-denying Mariano Rajoy. You might remember him; he's the one with a relative who holds a position in a university who doesn't reckon much to the climate-change argument, and so Mariano used that as the basis for his own argument. That's about as good as it gets.
But also meanwhile, Sr. Zapatero can at least walk the European stage during Spain's EU presidency term. The central government's science and innovation minister has announced, as part of the programme for the presidency, that research and development and innovation should be at the heart of European recovery. Good for her. Ah yes, innovation, technology, research and development. Now, wasn't there something about all that two or three years back? Not from Madrid, but from the regional government. Whatever happened, do you suppose? Could it be that funding just had to be diverted to bolstering the rust-bowl industries - construction and hotels during time of crisis? Industries that are at the heart of Mallorca's seasonality. And so it goes around, and around, and around, the circle remaining unbroken.
QUIZ
Yesterday: A-ha, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAhY2tV5wlc. Today's title: take your pick as to the circle.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for January 2010
Airport management by local government - 25 January 2010
Association of British Companies Menorca - 28 January 2010
Capdepera alternative tourism - 6 January 2010
Ciudadanos Europeos - 17 January 2010
Constructors unpaid by town halls - 26 January 2010
England versus Mallorca in winter - 4 January 2010
English standards in Mallorca - 23 January 2010
Environmental care, lack of - 15 January 2010
Fiestas - 14 January 2010, 15 January 2010, 16 January 2010, 19 January 2010, 22 January 2010
Francesc Antich - 13 January 2010, 25 January 2010
GOB - 30 January 2010
Hiper car rental in administration - 29 January 2010
IVA increase and tourism - 21 January 2010
Jardín restaurant, Alcúdia - 5 January 2010
Miquel Capllonch - 10 January 2010
Miquel Ferrer's tourism boldness - 22 January 2010
Miquel Llompart, new mayor of Alcúdia - 9 January 2010, 18 January 2010
Muro golf course - 29 January 2010, 30 January 2010
Pi de Ternelles accident - 19 January 2010
Pollensa street cleaning - 29 January 2010
Real Mallorca - 5 January 2010, 15 January 2010
Sant Antoni - 14 January 2010, 15 January 2010, 16 January 2010, 19 January 2010
Sant Sebastià in Pollensa - 22 January 2010
Santa Margalida town hall - 8 January 2010
Smoking law, new - 5 January 2010, 20 January 2010, 21 January 2010, 22 January 2010
Thomas Cook advertising - 12 January 2010
Three Kings - 7 January 2010
Tourism a priority - 25 January 2010
Town hall information provision - 16 January 2010, 18 January 2010
Town hall spends - 11 January 2010, 26 January 2010
Unemployment in the Balearics - 31 January 2010
Unió Mallorquina new leader - 5 January 2010, 27 January 2010
Webcams and surveillance - 24 January 2010
World Cup song - 19 January 2010
Zapatero and the price of coffee - 21 January 2010
The government reckons that unemployment has peaked. It may have, for the time being, though an improvement in figures is unlikely to show up for some while, until seasonal employment kicks in. Even that, however, disguises the true picture, and that is the lack of employment opportunities which summer work only helps to obscure. Recession has exacerbated the situation, clearly it has, but it has also exposed the fault lines of the local economy - ones that should have been obvious to anyone, even politicians, seduced by the boom times but apparently incapable of counteracting seasonality.
The national government, meanwhile, is flailing around, desperate to find any measure that might reduce its massive budget deficit and to assure the markets that the Spanish economy is not the same basket case as Greece's; oh how the temporarily mighty have fallen. One ploy is to raise the pension age to 67. Fine, assuming there's any work for the 65 year-olds to continue with. Another is to increase indirect taxation. For an island - Mallorca - and a nation for which tax avoidance is a past-time, this is insane. It might, questionably, mollify the markets, but it will do nothing for employment creation.
Mr. Bean is cutting an ever more awkward figure. When elected for his second term in 2008, Sr. Zapatero had promised full employment. There wasn't a hope in hell's chance of that, especially not as the crisis began to consume everything in its path. And even were there "full employment", what would it look like? A few months work as a waiter and then back to the off-season dole queues, paid for by the burdensome levels of social security that are a brake on much employment creation. Were there to be an election now, chances are that the PSOE would be obliterated, bringing into office - by default - the singularly uninspiring figure of the PP's climate-change-denying Mariano Rajoy. You might remember him; he's the one with a relative who holds a position in a university who doesn't reckon much to the climate-change argument, and so Mariano used that as the basis for his own argument. That's about as good as it gets.
But also meanwhile, Sr. Zapatero can at least walk the European stage during Spain's EU presidency term. The central government's science and innovation minister has announced, as part of the programme for the presidency, that research and development and innovation should be at the heart of European recovery. Good for her. Ah yes, innovation, technology, research and development. Now, wasn't there something about all that two or three years back? Not from Madrid, but from the regional government. Whatever happened, do you suppose? Could it be that funding just had to be diverted to bolstering the rust-bowl industries - construction and hotels during time of crisis? Industries that are at the heart of Mallorca's seasonality. And so it goes around, and around, and around, the circle remaining unbroken.
QUIZ
Yesterday: A-ha, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAhY2tV5wlc. Today's title: take your pick as to the circle.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for January 2010
Airport management by local government - 25 January 2010
Association of British Companies Menorca - 28 January 2010
Capdepera alternative tourism - 6 January 2010
Ciudadanos Europeos - 17 January 2010
Constructors unpaid by town halls - 26 January 2010
England versus Mallorca in winter - 4 January 2010
English standards in Mallorca - 23 January 2010
Environmental care, lack of - 15 January 2010
Fiestas - 14 January 2010, 15 January 2010, 16 January 2010, 19 January 2010, 22 January 2010
Francesc Antich - 13 January 2010, 25 January 2010
GOB - 30 January 2010
Hiper car rental in administration - 29 January 2010
IVA increase and tourism - 21 January 2010
Jardín restaurant, Alcúdia - 5 January 2010
Miquel Capllonch - 10 January 2010
Miquel Ferrer's tourism boldness - 22 January 2010
Miquel Llompart, new mayor of Alcúdia - 9 January 2010, 18 January 2010
Muro golf course - 29 January 2010, 30 January 2010
Pi de Ternelles accident - 19 January 2010
Pollensa street cleaning - 29 January 2010
Real Mallorca - 5 January 2010, 15 January 2010
Sant Antoni - 14 January 2010, 15 January 2010, 16 January 2010, 19 January 2010
Sant Sebastià in Pollensa - 22 January 2010
Santa Margalida town hall - 8 January 2010
Smoking law, new - 5 January 2010, 20 January 2010, 21 January 2010, 22 January 2010
Thomas Cook advertising - 12 January 2010
Three Kings - 7 January 2010
Tourism a priority - 25 January 2010
Town hall information provision - 16 January 2010, 18 January 2010
Town hall spends - 11 January 2010, 26 January 2010
Unemployment in the Balearics - 31 January 2010
Unió Mallorquina new leader - 5 January 2010, 27 January 2010
Webcams and surveillance - 24 January 2010
World Cup song - 19 January 2010
Zapatero and the price of coffee - 21 January 2010
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Reasons To Be Cheerful - Part One
Despite the prospect of Spain entering into recession in 2009, there are reasons to believe that the Balearics will not be joining the rest of the country. Surprising though this might sound, latest figures and prognostications indicate that the islands will have experienced growth of just under 3 per cent this year, with an anticipated growth next year of just under 1 per cent. It wouldn't be much, but equally it would not represent recession. Moreover, the situation is not felt to be anything quite as bad as the last great crisis - between 1991 and 1993. The major casualty of the economic downturn has been, as we all know, construction, but it is tourism which is holding things together. It may also come as a surprise to learn that this year has witnessed an increase in hotel takings and in tourism spend. At least that is what the government is saying. There are probably many who would disagree. Although instinct suggests that the coming year could be problematic for tourism, and could blow apart that forecast for slight growth, indications are that things could be better than might have been anticipated. It does all remain to be seen, especially if recession bites as deep as it is expected to in the UK and, to a lesser extent, in Spain itself, thus harming UK and Spanish tourism. But for the moment, there is some reason to be cautiously optimistic. And that's no bad thing, rather than constantly talking ourselves into recession and sheer pessimism.
BEING SPANISH - PART ONE
For quite some time I have been mulling over the meaning of "being Spanish" in the sense of what constitutes being Spanish - be it bar, restaurant, resort, architecture, landscape and quite probably more besides. This was all inspired by comments one finds - from tourists - that such-and-such a restaurant or so-and-so a place is either Spanish, a bit Spanish or not Spanish at all. I'd love to know what they mean, because, hard though I try, I'm damned if I know what constitutes "being Spanish". Not of course that it will stop me from having a go.
One of those comments referred to Can Picafort. For those of you unfamiliar with the resort, let me give you an impression. It is everyman resort. Largely without character, it is chock-full of hotels and, in the main part of the resort, laid out according to a grid system of roads. It is the criss-cross resort. The Son Bauló part, on the other hand, is mainly a circle. Looked at on a map, Son Bauló is like a football being kicked by the long leg of Can Picafort - a sort of Italy and Sicily turned horizontal. The two parts are joined by a section of non-descript streets with similarly non-descript houses, while the leg and football are held in place by a long, straight stick which is the main road from Alcúdia to Artà, to either side of which are more hotels, supermarkets and petrol stations. The promenade is populated with repetitious barns of restaurants. The sand in winter encroaches onto the promenade, and the impression is of a seafront not totally unlike something one might find in Britain. The marina, compared with the more luxury end of the market in Alcúdia, is a disappointment of semi-neglect. To one side of it, there is a watchtower which stands in the midst of green seaweed, deposited by the occasional turbulent waves. The whole resort was basically built from scratch. There is little that remains of a Can Picafort heritage, not in truth that it ever had one as the place itself has a history far shorter than the nearby ports of Alcúdia or Pollensa.
It was a surprise, therefore, when I read someone who described Can Picafort as being Spanish. By what criteria could it possibly be so, especially its frontline with the tired appearance of a British seaside resort? It is in Spain, but otherwise? There is but one part that hints at this elusive concept of Spanishness, and that is the Santa Eulália avenue that runs along the back of the town. It houses the two Viva hotel complexes which, unlike the obtrusive hotels dotted all over the centre of the resort, are set back in an attractive residential area that combines the shades of Mallorcan architecture - the terracottas and the yellows - with a quasi-Arabic style of handed-down Spanish house-building. But even this is phoney because of its modernity; a developer's dream of recaptured Spain which can descend into a parody akin to mock Tudor facades in England that aspire to historical context but are too often design by naffness. Drive along the avenue and it is pleasant enough until one turns back down to the main road and is assaulted by what appears to be the local housing project of apartment block with the washing out. It isn't a project, just the white tower of the back of the Tonga Sol with towels draped from every balcony. And as one leaves Can Picafort, heading towards Alcúdia, there is the bizarre enclave of Ses Casetes des Capellans with its vacation homes little more than beach huts which I have previously compared with Jaywick Sands. These huts reach into the forest and dunes of Playa de Muro, a forest of pines, themselves a feature of a natural world to be discovered all over Europe. One searches for the essence of Spanishness in Can Pic, only because someone has said that it has it, but the search is fruitless. And so one must look elsewhere. Till next time ...
PLEASE - What are your notions of "being Spanish"? It can be anything you like. Email me, as below. I'd be delighted to hear your views and perhaps use them in follow-up features. As always, any email correspondence is treated with respect, so your details are never reproduced here. Thanks.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Kylie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0G-4HBYihU). Today's title - well it was actually part three; who was it?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
BEING SPANISH - PART ONE
For quite some time I have been mulling over the meaning of "being Spanish" in the sense of what constitutes being Spanish - be it bar, restaurant, resort, architecture, landscape and quite probably more besides. This was all inspired by comments one finds - from tourists - that such-and-such a restaurant or so-and-so a place is either Spanish, a bit Spanish or not Spanish at all. I'd love to know what they mean, because, hard though I try, I'm damned if I know what constitutes "being Spanish". Not of course that it will stop me from having a go.
One of those comments referred to Can Picafort. For those of you unfamiliar with the resort, let me give you an impression. It is everyman resort. Largely without character, it is chock-full of hotels and, in the main part of the resort, laid out according to a grid system of roads. It is the criss-cross resort. The Son Bauló part, on the other hand, is mainly a circle. Looked at on a map, Son Bauló is like a football being kicked by the long leg of Can Picafort - a sort of Italy and Sicily turned horizontal. The two parts are joined by a section of non-descript streets with similarly non-descript houses, while the leg and football are held in place by a long, straight stick which is the main road from Alcúdia to Artà, to either side of which are more hotels, supermarkets and petrol stations. The promenade is populated with repetitious barns of restaurants. The sand in winter encroaches onto the promenade, and the impression is of a seafront not totally unlike something one might find in Britain. The marina, compared with the more luxury end of the market in Alcúdia, is a disappointment of semi-neglect. To one side of it, there is a watchtower which stands in the midst of green seaweed, deposited by the occasional turbulent waves. The whole resort was basically built from scratch. There is little that remains of a Can Picafort heritage, not in truth that it ever had one as the place itself has a history far shorter than the nearby ports of Alcúdia or Pollensa.
It was a surprise, therefore, when I read someone who described Can Picafort as being Spanish. By what criteria could it possibly be so, especially its frontline with the tired appearance of a British seaside resort? It is in Spain, but otherwise? There is but one part that hints at this elusive concept of Spanishness, and that is the Santa Eulália avenue that runs along the back of the town. It houses the two Viva hotel complexes which, unlike the obtrusive hotels dotted all over the centre of the resort, are set back in an attractive residential area that combines the shades of Mallorcan architecture - the terracottas and the yellows - with a quasi-Arabic style of handed-down Spanish house-building. But even this is phoney because of its modernity; a developer's dream of recaptured Spain which can descend into a parody akin to mock Tudor facades in England that aspire to historical context but are too often design by naffness. Drive along the avenue and it is pleasant enough until one turns back down to the main road and is assaulted by what appears to be the local housing project of apartment block with the washing out. It isn't a project, just the white tower of the back of the Tonga Sol with towels draped from every balcony. And as one leaves Can Picafort, heading towards Alcúdia, there is the bizarre enclave of Ses Casetes des Capellans with its vacation homes little more than beach huts which I have previously compared with Jaywick Sands. These huts reach into the forest and dunes of Playa de Muro, a forest of pines, themselves a feature of a natural world to be discovered all over Europe. One searches for the essence of Spanishness in Can Pic, only because someone has said that it has it, but the search is fruitless. And so one must look elsewhere. Till next time ...
PLEASE - What are your notions of "being Spanish"? It can be anything you like. Email me, as below. I'd be delighted to hear your views and perhaps use them in follow-up features. As always, any email correspondence is treated with respect, so your details are never reproduced here. Thanks.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Kylie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0G-4HBYihU). Today's title - well it was actually part three; who was it?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Watching And Waiting, Anticipating ...
The anticipation was great. Deliverance might have been hoped for but deliberation was what turned up. Balearic president Francesc Antich came, he spoke and he will have to conquer the guardians of central government's purse-strings. The much-heralded announcement on the islands' economic situation was something of a damp squib in this long, hot and difficult summer. The politicos can pack their bags for their August vacations sure in the knowledge of their own impotence.
Antich presented a 13-point plan. It was politics dressed up as economic expediency. Tax cuts for certain groups buying their first home, some adjustment of capital gains and a whole wedge of moolah for the construction industry. Little of it was new. The relief for the construction sector had already been announced; tax assistance for the young buying a house is yesterday's news. This may be welcome but it is the banks who fund house purchases not tax breaks; mortgages are as scarce as rain at present. The pumping of further cash into the economy relies on Madrid being cajoled into opening its coffers wider. That's the deliberation; the funding arrangements for the Balearics is and has been an ongoing discussion. There's more deliberation - a committee to look at how to reduce property prices and a call for cross-party participation at a time of crisis. At least Antich, unlike President Zapatero, was prepared to refer to a "crisis"; he has his head half raised out of the sand whereas Mr. Shoemaker seems to be buried in it. The only hint as to something new was a vague reference to the fact that the current problems offer the chance for a different economic model - whatever that might be.
It is easy to be critical. The fact is that regional governments, in this case the Balearics, are even more incapable of dealing with global economic difficulties than a national government. It is not really their fault except for the absence of a genuine attempt at a re-modelling of the economy that could smooth some of the harm caused by situations such as the present one. We shouldn't really have anticipated much because there was little to anticipate.
Meanwhile ... In Playa de Muro there is a fine old argument raging. This weekend sees what passes for a fiesta. It is small beer compared with the pint-sized celebrations of, for example, Pollensa's Patrona. This year there are some changes - there is not be a street party while there is to be a fair which will include samples of local cuisine. It is the nosh aspect that has caused hackles to be raised. In the "Diario" no less than Joan Torrens from Restaurant Boy is bemoaning the fact that restaurants in the playa are not among the ranks of restaurants offering samples (all three of them). I know Joan pretty well and can well imagine him in complete disgruntlement mode.
The argument goes thus: the three participating restaurants, all of them from Muro town, will be offering dishes for three euros a pop (actually the publicity brochure says two euros) and these will deprive the local restaurants of diners, while the non-street party this year will reduce the numbers flocking to Playa de Muro and spending their dosh in those local restaurants. Oh, and there is the matter of one of the three restaurants belonging to the councillor responsible for Muro's fiestas. I wouldn't fancy being him on the end of a high-volume tongue-lashing from a riled Joan, which I daresay he has been.
The town hall reckons that all will be ok as people will merely be sampling the dishes not having dinner and also says that one restaurant in the playa was approached but declined as they would have too much work on.
It is all pretty daft and gloriously representative of how daft things can be here. There again, chatting locally there is support for the playa's restaurants - they pay more than the town's restaurants and there is perhaps a sense in which the town is raining on the playa restaurants' parade. Those ten kilometres between the playa and town are more than just a physical distance; they create two entities with some mutual hostility. Anyway Muro town hall has done quite well with its publicity. The sheet over the main road announcing the "Fira nocturna" which can't actually be read when the wind blows is rather pointless but there are posters and leaflets in four different languages; nothing needlessly expensive like, say, the Puerto Pollensa Virgen del Carmen brochure, but to the point and useful. Info's on the WHAT'S ON BLOG. This does not refer, as the leaflet does, to "peasants" who "will delight us". Whatever.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Dolly Parton - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpKAA2VxWY8. Today's title - who? Boy band. Colour.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Index for July 2008
Airlines - 21 July 2008
All-inclusives - 19 July 2008
Bars - 11 July 2008
Balearic Government - 31 July 2008
BBC Breakfast TV - 29 July 2008
Beaches - 29 July 2008
Blogs - 14 July 2008
Books - 20 July 2008
Bullfighting - 28 July 2008
Construction industry - 27 July 2008
Eroski - 26 July 2008
Fiestas - 13 July 2008, 14 July 2008, 16 July 2008, 18 July 2008, 22 July 2008, 25 July 2008, 31 July 2008
Football - 2 July 2008, 23 July 2008
Hiking - 7 July 2008
Holiday clubs - 1 July 2008
Holiday reading - 20 July 2008
Hotels - 19 July 2008, 27 July 2008
House prices - 23 July 2008
Jazz - 18 July 2008
La Victoria - 7 July 2008
Language - 9 July 2008, 10 July 2008, 14 July 2008
Lucky-lucky men - 5 July 2008, 6 July 2008
Mallorcan companies - 27 July 2008
Mallorcan economy - 19 July 2008, 21 July 2008, 27 July 2008, 31 July 2008
Mallorcans - 4 July 2008, 10 July 2008, 23 July 2008
Names - 13 July 2008
Newspapers - 20 July 2008
Noise - 3 July 2008
Opening hours - 30 July 2008
Patrona 2008 - 13 July 2008, 22 July 2008
Playa de Muro fiesta - 31 July 2008
Police - 15 July 2008
Price controls - 11 July 2008
Property market - 21 July 2008, 23 July 2008
Public relations - 17 July 2008
Public services - 30 July 2008
Real Mallorca - 2 July 2008, 23 July 2008
Restaurants - 14 July 2008
Roundabouts - 15 July 2008
Ryanair - 21 July 2008
Sa Pobla Jazz 2008 - 18 July 2008
Santa Margalida - 14 July 2008
Scratch cards - 1 July 2008, 12 July 2008
Son Real - 24 July 2008
Sport - 29 July 2008
Supermarkets - 26 July 2008
Television - 29 July 2008
Time - 4 July 2008
Toilets, public - 12 July 2008
Tourist information - 8 July 2008, 16 July 2008, 17 July 2008
Tourist offices - 8 July 2008, 17 July 2008
Tourist sites - 24 July 2008
Verge del Carme 2008 - 16 July 2008
Antich presented a 13-point plan. It was politics dressed up as economic expediency. Tax cuts for certain groups buying their first home, some adjustment of capital gains and a whole wedge of moolah for the construction industry. Little of it was new. The relief for the construction sector had already been announced; tax assistance for the young buying a house is yesterday's news. This may be welcome but it is the banks who fund house purchases not tax breaks; mortgages are as scarce as rain at present. The pumping of further cash into the economy relies on Madrid being cajoled into opening its coffers wider. That's the deliberation; the funding arrangements for the Balearics is and has been an ongoing discussion. There's more deliberation - a committee to look at how to reduce property prices and a call for cross-party participation at a time of crisis. At least Antich, unlike President Zapatero, was prepared to refer to a "crisis"; he has his head half raised out of the sand whereas Mr. Shoemaker seems to be buried in it. The only hint as to something new was a vague reference to the fact that the current problems offer the chance for a different economic model - whatever that might be.
It is easy to be critical. The fact is that regional governments, in this case the Balearics, are even more incapable of dealing with global economic difficulties than a national government. It is not really their fault except for the absence of a genuine attempt at a re-modelling of the economy that could smooth some of the harm caused by situations such as the present one. We shouldn't really have anticipated much because there was little to anticipate.
Meanwhile ... In Playa de Muro there is a fine old argument raging. This weekend sees what passes for a fiesta. It is small beer compared with the pint-sized celebrations of, for example, Pollensa's Patrona. This year there are some changes - there is not be a street party while there is to be a fair which will include samples of local cuisine. It is the nosh aspect that has caused hackles to be raised. In the "Diario" no less than Joan Torrens from Restaurant Boy is bemoaning the fact that restaurants in the playa are not among the ranks of restaurants offering samples (all three of them). I know Joan pretty well and can well imagine him in complete disgruntlement mode.
The argument goes thus: the three participating restaurants, all of them from Muro town, will be offering dishes for three euros a pop (actually the publicity brochure says two euros) and these will deprive the local restaurants of diners, while the non-street party this year will reduce the numbers flocking to Playa de Muro and spending their dosh in those local restaurants. Oh, and there is the matter of one of the three restaurants belonging to the councillor responsible for Muro's fiestas. I wouldn't fancy being him on the end of a high-volume tongue-lashing from a riled Joan, which I daresay he has been.
The town hall reckons that all will be ok as people will merely be sampling the dishes not having dinner and also says that one restaurant in the playa was approached but declined as they would have too much work on.
It is all pretty daft and gloriously representative of how daft things can be here. There again, chatting locally there is support for the playa's restaurants - they pay more than the town's restaurants and there is perhaps a sense in which the town is raining on the playa restaurants' parade. Those ten kilometres between the playa and town are more than just a physical distance; they create two entities with some mutual hostility. Anyway Muro town hall has done quite well with its publicity. The sheet over the main road announcing the "Fira nocturna" which can't actually be read when the wind blows is rather pointless but there are posters and leaflets in four different languages; nothing needlessly expensive like, say, the Puerto Pollensa Virgen del Carmen brochure, but to the point and useful. Info's on the WHAT'S ON BLOG. This does not refer, as the leaflet does, to "peasants" who "will delight us". Whatever.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Dolly Parton - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpKAA2VxWY8. Today's title - who? Boy band. Colour.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Index for July 2008
Airlines - 21 July 2008
All-inclusives - 19 July 2008
Bars - 11 July 2008
Balearic Government - 31 July 2008
BBC Breakfast TV - 29 July 2008
Beaches - 29 July 2008
Blogs - 14 July 2008
Books - 20 July 2008
Bullfighting - 28 July 2008
Construction industry - 27 July 2008
Eroski - 26 July 2008
Fiestas - 13 July 2008, 14 July 2008, 16 July 2008, 18 July 2008, 22 July 2008, 25 July 2008, 31 July 2008
Football - 2 July 2008, 23 July 2008
Hiking - 7 July 2008
Holiday clubs - 1 July 2008
Holiday reading - 20 July 2008
Hotels - 19 July 2008, 27 July 2008
House prices - 23 July 2008
Jazz - 18 July 2008
La Victoria - 7 July 2008
Language - 9 July 2008, 10 July 2008, 14 July 2008
Lucky-lucky men - 5 July 2008, 6 July 2008
Mallorcan companies - 27 July 2008
Mallorcan economy - 19 July 2008, 21 July 2008, 27 July 2008, 31 July 2008
Mallorcans - 4 July 2008, 10 July 2008, 23 July 2008
Names - 13 July 2008
Newspapers - 20 July 2008
Noise - 3 July 2008
Opening hours - 30 July 2008
Patrona 2008 - 13 July 2008, 22 July 2008
Playa de Muro fiesta - 31 July 2008
Police - 15 July 2008
Price controls - 11 July 2008
Property market - 21 July 2008, 23 July 2008
Public relations - 17 July 2008
Public services - 30 July 2008
Real Mallorca - 2 July 2008, 23 July 2008
Restaurants - 14 July 2008
Roundabouts - 15 July 2008
Ryanair - 21 July 2008
Sa Pobla Jazz 2008 - 18 July 2008
Santa Margalida - 14 July 2008
Scratch cards - 1 July 2008, 12 July 2008
Son Real - 24 July 2008
Sport - 29 July 2008
Supermarkets - 26 July 2008
Television - 29 July 2008
Time - 4 July 2008
Toilets, public - 12 July 2008
Tourist information - 8 July 2008, 16 July 2008, 17 July 2008
Tourist offices - 8 July 2008, 17 July 2008
Tourist sites - 24 July 2008
Verge del Carme 2008 - 16 July 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
It's Just A Rumour That Was Spread Around Town
With the due predictability of night following day, the Balearic Government, responding to the current economic mess, is going to stump up over 1000 million euros, much it being directed towards construction and a fair chunk to paying debts.
This is the unreal reality of the local economy. It is hard to ever categorise construction as a strategic industry, but in Mallorca that is pretty much what it is. It is a strategic industry in that it creates a cycle of employment and wealth generation and thus is, in effect, a glorified subsistence industry. The government, with little else to turn to, is left with little alternative but to prop it up. And propping up is what it is doing.
It cannot be denied that certain public projects, such as the upgrading of water-treatment plants and the planned extensions to the rail network, are necessary or to-be-desired infrastructure developments and job creators, but one does have to wonder as to the efficiency of the capital being handed over to local construction firms. The current economic malaise is one created by many factors, but debt and therefore business collapse are the consequences. Take the Drac Group, the company presided over by Vicente Grande, he also of the Real Mallorca football club to which Freddy Shepherd has turned his covetous eyes. Drac has applied for the suspension of payments to creditors. A financial restructuring may yet save the company, but it is, to all intents and purposes, bankrupt. A substantial player like Drac going almost or totally belly-up obviously means that supplier firms are left with unpaid invoices, cascading the economic problem down through the economic chain of the island. This is the debt-payment alleviation to which the government is willing to divert funding.
I have no way of knowing the ins and outs of the Drac situation, but the construction sector stands (and appears to also fall) as an example of why things are in a mess. Many construction companies have been like Leeds United; they have bet the future with easy credit that has of course now dried up. Again, I make no comment specifically about Drac, but one has to ask - in a wider context - about the management and governance that has brought this situation about.
The government is left with a Hobson's choice - and that is to support an industry that has become de facto strategic in the absence of alternatives. If nothing else, this should all be exercising the minds of Balearic politicians as to diversification, and a shift away from the relationship with the construction sector, a relationship that seems to enable firms in difficulty to go cap in hand for a bail-out and for more public funds and therefore more borrowing to jump-start the sector. The construction industry may be in difficulty, but it virtually can hold a gun to the government's head. Let firms go under and that means unemployment, more grim economic news, and the blame will be lain at the government's door, which would be only partially true. And don't think this is all a consequence of an acquiescent Socialist-led government; it would have been no different under a PP administration.
But what, one might well ask, would happen were there to be a sudden collapse in the tourism sector, which can more genuinely be called a strategic industry? Would hoteliers and others, faced with debts from unsold holidays, be able to get the government to dig into the coffers for assistance? Aid because of, say, a natural disaster is one thing, but aid occasioned by market failure is another. Which brings one back to the notion of diversification. There is just the possibility of a "shock" that could derail the tourism sector; it cannot ever be discounted. But the question of course is diversification into what. I don't know that anyone has a good answer to that.
QUIZ
Chain - Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of the state of Ohio, which does rather beg the question why a state needs an official rock song, but there you go. And by which soul and funk route do you get from Ohio to "Turn The Music Up". Yesterday's title - Man Ray's real name was Emmanuel Radnitzky. Today's title - though it was about more than just a decaying industry (not that construction here is, but it seemed like a good opportunity to use the title), where does this come from?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
This is the unreal reality of the local economy. It is hard to ever categorise construction as a strategic industry, but in Mallorca that is pretty much what it is. It is a strategic industry in that it creates a cycle of employment and wealth generation and thus is, in effect, a glorified subsistence industry. The government, with little else to turn to, is left with little alternative but to prop it up. And propping up is what it is doing.
It cannot be denied that certain public projects, such as the upgrading of water-treatment plants and the planned extensions to the rail network, are necessary or to-be-desired infrastructure developments and job creators, but one does have to wonder as to the efficiency of the capital being handed over to local construction firms. The current economic malaise is one created by many factors, but debt and therefore business collapse are the consequences. Take the Drac Group, the company presided over by Vicente Grande, he also of the Real Mallorca football club to which Freddy Shepherd has turned his covetous eyes. Drac has applied for the suspension of payments to creditors. A financial restructuring may yet save the company, but it is, to all intents and purposes, bankrupt. A substantial player like Drac going almost or totally belly-up obviously means that supplier firms are left with unpaid invoices, cascading the economic problem down through the economic chain of the island. This is the debt-payment alleviation to which the government is willing to divert funding.
I have no way of knowing the ins and outs of the Drac situation, but the construction sector stands (and appears to also fall) as an example of why things are in a mess. Many construction companies have been like Leeds United; they have bet the future with easy credit that has of course now dried up. Again, I make no comment specifically about Drac, but one has to ask - in a wider context - about the management and governance that has brought this situation about.
The government is left with a Hobson's choice - and that is to support an industry that has become de facto strategic in the absence of alternatives. If nothing else, this should all be exercising the minds of Balearic politicians as to diversification, and a shift away from the relationship with the construction sector, a relationship that seems to enable firms in difficulty to go cap in hand for a bail-out and for more public funds and therefore more borrowing to jump-start the sector. The construction industry may be in difficulty, but it virtually can hold a gun to the government's head. Let firms go under and that means unemployment, more grim economic news, and the blame will be lain at the government's door, which would be only partially true. And don't think this is all a consequence of an acquiescent Socialist-led government; it would have been no different under a PP administration.
But what, one might well ask, would happen were there to be a sudden collapse in the tourism sector, which can more genuinely be called a strategic industry? Would hoteliers and others, faced with debts from unsold holidays, be able to get the government to dig into the coffers for assistance? Aid because of, say, a natural disaster is one thing, but aid occasioned by market failure is another. Which brings one back to the notion of diversification. There is just the possibility of a "shock" that could derail the tourism sector; it cannot ever be discounted. But the question of course is diversification into what. I don't know that anyone has a good answer to that.
QUIZ
Chain - Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of the state of Ohio, which does rather beg the question why a state needs an official rock song, but there you go. And by which soul and funk route do you get from Ohio to "Turn The Music Up". Yesterday's title - Man Ray's real name was Emmanuel Radnitzky. Today's title - though it was about more than just a decaying industry (not that construction here is, but it seemed like a good opportunity to use the title), where does this come from?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Monday, June 23, 2008
Too Shy, Shy
And so, after all the rubbish weather comes the hot stuff. We were told to expect it, and with due predictability, on the back of what was more like March weather, the lows have turned to very highs, with some forecasts talking of temperatures up to 35 or 37 degrees (99 in old money). One of the surprising aspects of this, surprising as Mallorca is hardly immune to hot weather, is that the authorities feel the need to give out a warning and advice, but I guess the message can never be made too often.
Excitement mounts as Spain move on to the semis of Euro 2008. Thank God they beat Italy. Otherwise, amid all the attacking football, there might have been the prospect of the Italians boring their way to the championship. Spanish TV went overboard, extending its programme in order to accommodate even more pockets of advertising. Heaven knows what will happen if they actually win the thing - a feast of advertising opportunity till three in the morning beckons. It was a truly rotten game, but the victory offered the chance to see how truly rotten TV here can be. Shambolic hardly does justice to the post-match presentation of the Cuatro channel ("podemos", we can; no you cannot). You couldn't tell what was advert and what was frantic, hastily-cobbled-together reaction. There was even some bizarre thing which involved speaking to a group of about ten supporters in front of a huge banner that read "Kia Fest"; motor cars are the stuff of Euro championship advertising, especially Korean cars. The chap who was packed off to do the interviews in front of the multi-sponsored board was like the cat who'd got the cream when he managed a few words with the King after he had emerged from the team's changing room. "I spoke to the King, I spoke to the King," was what he wanted to say. The King does at least turn up for these events. Think of him what you may, but there is no denying his support for Spanish sports teams. There was once, and it must have been the 2004 Olympics, the time when he and the Queen attended the medal ceremony for some minor sport - rowing perhaps. The medals duly divvied up, the King and the Queen then engaged in much kissing and hugging with the Spanish gold medallists; it was all rather touching, and you couldn't have imagined the British royal family acting in such a way.
The real star of the Spanish win though was not one of the players but someone I have had cause to have a go at here - namely the coach Luis Aragones. After Fabregas scored the winning penalty, what did Aragones do? Go into a David Pleat-like leaping fit? No, he picked up something from the bench, was embraced by someone and then walked off. Nothing more. Avram Grant had Mourinhoesque charisma compared with Aragones. In the lead up to the penalties, all he did was walk on to the pitch with a piece of paper to tell the players who were taking the pens and then went and sat down again. No motivational speeches, no imploring, just a sense of this is your job, now get on and do it. But it was the post-match press conference that really gave us an insight into Aragones. He was there with the eloquent captain, Iker Casillas. When Casillas left, you could see Aragones was thinking: "I'm on my own here". He scratched his neck and his ear and he mumbled into the mike. He was shy. He obviously hated it all. He has gone up in my estimation.
Meanwhile, away from the euphoria of the football, the lousy economic situation has prompted the Balearic Government into holding talks with various bodies, such as the unions and business groups. Whilst the economy is said, by the government, to be "robust", ways are being sought to combat the current problems, not least unemployment. And so what will they be proposing? More construction. Yep, even more construction. This may make sense as a short-term fix, but it fails to address the weakness of the Balearic economy, which is its reliance on construction (and tourism). And the recent record with siphoning off public money into the private sector for undertaking public works has not been uniformly successful, owing to the problems of indebtedness that some of these firms have.
QUIZ
Chain - Crowded House, "Four Seasons In One Day" to The Four Seasons and "Who Loves You". And what connects The Four Seasons to American pop act of the '60s, The McCoys? Yesterday's title - "World In Motion", New Order (see this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nQItOROYlc). Today's title - who? Had them here recently.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Excitement mounts as Spain move on to the semis of Euro 2008. Thank God they beat Italy. Otherwise, amid all the attacking football, there might have been the prospect of the Italians boring their way to the championship. Spanish TV went overboard, extending its programme in order to accommodate even more pockets of advertising. Heaven knows what will happen if they actually win the thing - a feast of advertising opportunity till three in the morning beckons. It was a truly rotten game, but the victory offered the chance to see how truly rotten TV here can be. Shambolic hardly does justice to the post-match presentation of the Cuatro channel ("podemos", we can; no you cannot). You couldn't tell what was advert and what was frantic, hastily-cobbled-together reaction. There was even some bizarre thing which involved speaking to a group of about ten supporters in front of a huge banner that read "Kia Fest"; motor cars are the stuff of Euro championship advertising, especially Korean cars. The chap who was packed off to do the interviews in front of the multi-sponsored board was like the cat who'd got the cream when he managed a few words with the King after he had emerged from the team's changing room. "I spoke to the King, I spoke to the King," was what he wanted to say. The King does at least turn up for these events. Think of him what you may, but there is no denying his support for Spanish sports teams. There was once, and it must have been the 2004 Olympics, the time when he and the Queen attended the medal ceremony for some minor sport - rowing perhaps. The medals duly divvied up, the King and the Queen then engaged in much kissing and hugging with the Spanish gold medallists; it was all rather touching, and you couldn't have imagined the British royal family acting in such a way.
The real star of the Spanish win though was not one of the players but someone I have had cause to have a go at here - namely the coach Luis Aragones. After Fabregas scored the winning penalty, what did Aragones do? Go into a David Pleat-like leaping fit? No, he picked up something from the bench, was embraced by someone and then walked off. Nothing more. Avram Grant had Mourinhoesque charisma compared with Aragones. In the lead up to the penalties, all he did was walk on to the pitch with a piece of paper to tell the players who were taking the pens and then went and sat down again. No motivational speeches, no imploring, just a sense of this is your job, now get on and do it. But it was the post-match press conference that really gave us an insight into Aragones. He was there with the eloquent captain, Iker Casillas. When Casillas left, you could see Aragones was thinking: "I'm on my own here". He scratched his neck and his ear and he mumbled into the mike. He was shy. He obviously hated it all. He has gone up in my estimation.
Meanwhile, away from the euphoria of the football, the lousy economic situation has prompted the Balearic Government into holding talks with various bodies, such as the unions and business groups. Whilst the economy is said, by the government, to be "robust", ways are being sought to combat the current problems, not least unemployment. And so what will they be proposing? More construction. Yep, even more construction. This may make sense as a short-term fix, but it fails to address the weakness of the Balearic economy, which is its reliance on construction (and tourism). And the recent record with siphoning off public money into the private sector for undertaking public works has not been uniformly successful, owing to the problems of indebtedness that some of these firms have.
QUIZ
Chain - Crowded House, "Four Seasons In One Day" to The Four Seasons and "Who Loves You". And what connects The Four Seasons to American pop act of the '60s, The McCoys? Yesterday's title - "World In Motion", New Order (see this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nQItOROYlc). Today's title - who? Had them here recently.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Monday, November 05, 2007
County Fair, Everybody In Town’ll Be There
All rosy on the economic front, it would seem, growth in the Balearics set to be 3.1% this year and similar next year. A good tourism year is one of the reasons for this growth. Though the effects of the credit crisis have had no real impact this year, might they next, especially among the key British and German markets? That, for the moment, is something of an unknown.
The season may be over, but not everything grinds to a complete standstill. The autumn fair season gives the island an impetus, and this weekend it is the turn of Pollensa. Fairly normal fare for a fair here - exhibitions, handicrafts, things for kids, music, animals. All good stuff. Sunday is the really hectic day. Events are listed on the WHAT’S ON BLOG.
How many people know that there are parts of Africa that are forever Spanish? Or maybe they won’t be forever. And because of today’s visit by King Juan-Carlos, more people will be aware of Ceuta and Melilla.
These are two towns in Morocco. Between them there are some 150,000 people. They lie quite some distance apart along the coast of Morocco, Ceuta opposite Gibraltar. There are plenty of people who would rather they were no longer Spanish - Moroccans mainly.
Think about it. Hastings and Torquay on England’s southern coast, parts of France not the United Kingdom. Put in those terms, the continued Spanish control seems absurd, an anachronism of empire. But then there is a part of Spain that is British - Gibraltar - and perhaps it doesn’t sound so absurd.
QUIZ
Yesterday - “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, The Pogues (orig. Eric Bogle). Today’s title - who? (Clue: American, very American.)
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
The season may be over, but not everything grinds to a complete standstill. The autumn fair season gives the island an impetus, and this weekend it is the turn of Pollensa. Fairly normal fare for a fair here - exhibitions, handicrafts, things for kids, music, animals. All good stuff. Sunday is the really hectic day. Events are listed on the WHAT’S ON BLOG.
How many people know that there are parts of Africa that are forever Spanish? Or maybe they won’t be forever. And because of today’s visit by King Juan-Carlos, more people will be aware of Ceuta and Melilla.
These are two towns in Morocco. Between them there are some 150,000 people. They lie quite some distance apart along the coast of Morocco, Ceuta opposite Gibraltar. There are plenty of people who would rather they were no longer Spanish - Moroccans mainly.
Think about it. Hastings and Torquay on England’s southern coast, parts of France not the United Kingdom. Put in those terms, the continued Spanish control seems absurd, an anachronism of empire. But then there is a part of Spain that is British - Gibraltar - and perhaps it doesn’t sound so absurd.
QUIZ
Yesterday - “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, The Pogues (orig. Eric Bogle). Today’s title - who? (Clue: American, very American.)
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Thursday, September 06, 2007
I Been Laid Off From Work
August unemployment levels in Mallorca were the highest for more than ten years. You might think with all that seasonal work that summer would be a time of high employment. Yes and no. The current set of unemployment figures are related not to seasonal work but to the ending of various construction projects. It isn’t necessarily doom and gloom as there are plenty of potential projects in the pipeline; indeed planned investment in public works, as set out in official bulletins, is up by nearly 60%, while the private sector, including hotel modernisation, is knocking out good figures as well
But the rise in unemployment highlights an underlying weakness of the Mallorcan economy. The non-residential construction sector has buoyed both the local and the national economy for the past decade or so. European money and advantageous interest rates have assisted the modernisation of infrastructure - roads, hospitals, schools etc. - that has transformed the island and much of the mainland from what was little more than Third World status at the start of the 1990s. So construction has been both necessary and vital in creating the economic boom of the past few years.
There are though clouds on this economic horizon, notably the interest-rate situation, turmoil in the credit markets and the potential for bust in the economy as a whole. Though planned investment in public work is high, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it will be implemented. Both government and the lenders (the banks) are facing a squeeze. “ ‘Spain's economic growth will slow down next year as turmoil in credit markets undermines investor confidence and stokes uncertainty’, Pedro Solbes, finance minister, said yesterday.”
Though the Zapatero government has sought to tighten public spending, politicians of all hues, at national and local levels, have generally adopted a spend ideology which, though it has created many benefits, has neglected structural deficiencies within the national and local economies and the business sector as a whole. In the Balearics, the level of investment in research and development is the lowest of any part of Spain; productivity has fallen every year since 2000 (with the exception of 2003); and training and development is lacking. These are not problems confined to the Balearics. " ‘Spain has not tackled a fundamental problem, its declining productivity,’ says Jordi Canals, dean of the IESE business school in Barcelona. ‘We are stuck in the middle, a high-wage economy with no ability to innovate.’ “
Taken as a set of competitiveness indicators, these leave much to be desired. Were there to be a drive to attract inward investment (apart from the sideshow of the residential real-estate sector), such lack of competitiveness would be a serious obstacle. While the average salary in the Balearics is a little above 18,200 euros net, the additional social costs (social security is typically around one-third of salary) are also a deterrent to such an investment. The question arises though, investment in what?
Take away construction and tourism and there is not a lot left. Sure, there are plenty of support industries and others, but they are highly dependent upon activity in these prime sectors. Even the agriculture industry faces its own problems with respect to cheap imports. While poor harvests are hard to prevent, technological investment and increased productivity can help to create the circumstances for greater competitiveness. It is not as though all these imports come from cheap sources. The almond market faces competition from, of all places, California.
A downturn in any one of these sectors is harmful. Were there to be simultaneous downturns in each sector, Mallorca would face difficulties. Add, if you will, climate change to this potentially volatile mix, and there is scope to question the island’s sustainable economic model unless there is diversification. But into what?
(Acknowledgements for some of this: FT.com, Ultima Hora.)
SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
I do, from time to time, look at what is being said on the myriad holiday froums lurking on the internet. I wouldn’t normally lift like this, but I can’t help it. Here is what someone said the other day:
“Why do the British like to go all the way to Mallorca to spend the day drinking in a bar watching reruns of Only Fools and Horses? With their big bellies jutting out and no tops on, it so does not look nice.”
I don’t know the answer to that. All I would say is that I am quite heartened that someone else raises the Fools and Horses thing (10 August: It’s Coming Home, It’s Coming Home ...).
QUIZ
Yesterday was Jimmy Nail. Today’s title - it’s the first line from a song by?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
But the rise in unemployment highlights an underlying weakness of the Mallorcan economy. The non-residential construction sector has buoyed both the local and the national economy for the past decade or so. European money and advantageous interest rates have assisted the modernisation of infrastructure - roads, hospitals, schools etc. - that has transformed the island and much of the mainland from what was little more than Third World status at the start of the 1990s. So construction has been both necessary and vital in creating the economic boom of the past few years.
There are though clouds on this economic horizon, notably the interest-rate situation, turmoil in the credit markets and the potential for bust in the economy as a whole. Though planned investment in public work is high, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it will be implemented. Both government and the lenders (the banks) are facing a squeeze. “ ‘Spain's economic growth will slow down next year as turmoil in credit markets undermines investor confidence and stokes uncertainty’, Pedro Solbes, finance minister, said yesterday.”
Though the Zapatero government has sought to tighten public spending, politicians of all hues, at national and local levels, have generally adopted a spend ideology which, though it has created many benefits, has neglected structural deficiencies within the national and local economies and the business sector as a whole. In the Balearics, the level of investment in research and development is the lowest of any part of Spain; productivity has fallen every year since 2000 (with the exception of 2003); and training and development is lacking. These are not problems confined to the Balearics. " ‘Spain has not tackled a fundamental problem, its declining productivity,’ says Jordi Canals, dean of the IESE business school in Barcelona. ‘We are stuck in the middle, a high-wage economy with no ability to innovate.’ “
Taken as a set of competitiveness indicators, these leave much to be desired. Were there to be a drive to attract inward investment (apart from the sideshow of the residential real-estate sector), such lack of competitiveness would be a serious obstacle. While the average salary in the Balearics is a little above 18,200 euros net, the additional social costs (social security is typically around one-third of salary) are also a deterrent to such an investment. The question arises though, investment in what?
Take away construction and tourism and there is not a lot left. Sure, there are plenty of support industries and others, but they are highly dependent upon activity in these prime sectors. Even the agriculture industry faces its own problems with respect to cheap imports. While poor harvests are hard to prevent, technological investment and increased productivity can help to create the circumstances for greater competitiveness. It is not as though all these imports come from cheap sources. The almond market faces competition from, of all places, California.
A downturn in any one of these sectors is harmful. Were there to be simultaneous downturns in each sector, Mallorca would face difficulties. Add, if you will, climate change to this potentially volatile mix, and there is scope to question the island’s sustainable economic model unless there is diversification. But into what?
(Acknowledgements for some of this: FT.com, Ultima Hora.)
SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
I do, from time to time, look at what is being said on the myriad holiday froums lurking on the internet. I wouldn’t normally lift like this, but I can’t help it. Here is what someone said the other day:
“Why do the British like to go all the way to Mallorca to spend the day drinking in a bar watching reruns of Only Fools and Horses? With their big bellies jutting out and no tops on, it so does not look nice.”
I don’t know the answer to that. All I would say is that I am quite heartened that someone else raises the Fools and Horses thing (10 August: It’s Coming Home, It’s Coming Home ...).
QUIZ
Yesterday was Jimmy Nail. Today’s title - it’s the first line from a song by?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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