Spanish Spending Big This Christmas

Spanish Spending will be Big This Christmas

Confidence is high this year and Spaniards are spending more

A study published recently by Deloitte shows that Spaniardswill be spending an average of €682 this Christmas, which is just under a third higher than the EU average. This figure brings them second place in Christmas spending in Europe. The top spot goes to the Danes, who are expected to be spending around €689 per head during the festive season.

Deloitte are predicting that overall Europeans are in for an average spend of €517 this Christmas, down 1% from last year. Deloitte say that Spanish consumer confidence is clearly on the rise, as two-thirds of the Spanish people they surveyed said that they felt they had just as much spending power as they had last year, if not more. This is up from the 52% of people who said the same thing on the run up to Christmas 2015.

Given that Spain is in the lower half of the EU in terms of the ratio of their income to living costs, it looks like optimism in Spain is very high. Other places where people are gearing up to spend more than the European average include Italy with €614, Belgium with €592 and Germany with €529.

On the opposite end of the table are the countries looking to be spending the least including Greece at €439, Portugal at €431, and Poland at €328.

The majority of the money Spaniards will be spending on Christmas (around €265) is going towards the actual gifts. This figure is up 1% from last year. Next comes food at €212 (an increase of 7%), travel at €132 (p 5%) and everything else will come to around €73 (an increase of 6% over 2015).

Spaniards Could be Getting Third General Election before Christmas

Spaniards Could be Getting Third General Election  before Christmas

Spain hasn't suffered al all without an elected government

on the contrary Spain has flourished on all levels 

Living in Spain with the Spanish political situation has gone from being a farce to being just outright bizarre. It’s becoming increasingly likely that Spaniards will have to head to the polls for the third time in twelve months to vote following the general election of last December. It looks like the vote this December could even fall on Christmas day.

The second general election, held in June, ended with things looking similar to how they did in the first one from December. The People’s Party (PP) of acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy won the most votes but did not quite gather a majority. They also didn’t have enough friends to call on to form a coalition.

While there was always the chance that there could be a third election many hoped that a compromise would be made over the summer. Rajoy himself recently agreed to a six-point plan of action given to him by the centre-right Ciudadanos party in return for their support in forming a coalition. He also agreed that at the end of August he would be submitted to a confidence vote in parliament.

The main problem that has dogged the People’s Party is still around however in the form of the Socialist party. They have been unrelenting in their opposition to Rajoy and his PP. Unless they support Rajoy or decide to not be included in the general election it’s unlikely that the political deadlock will ever end.

This is where things really get interesting. In the – quite likely – event that a vote of no confidence arises Spanish law dictates that the King of Spain must dissolve parliament and arrange an election 54 days later.

The confidence vote is set for August 30 and if you do the maths you’ll quickly work out that 54 days after August 30^th is Christmas Day.

Barely any Spaniards will like the idea of abandoning their Christmas plans to drag themselves to the polling station and vote for the third time on what boils down to the same election.

As such it’s expected that turnout will be down sharply if the election is actually held on the 25^th. There are also people who believe that the date could have a positive effect on turnout. They surmise that people gathering with their families away from work will likely make politics a hot debate and it will cause more people to come out to vote.

That the electorate has been asked to vote for the third time in a year shows just how dissatisfied the Spanish are with the political climate of the country. It seems like Spain is a country where either the People’s Party or the Socialists are the ones in power.

The funny thing is that Spain has done just fine without a real government these past 12 months. More people are employed, the GDP is on the up, the property market in Spain continues to improve and tourism is the best it’s ever been. With Spain holding itself together so well it wouldn’t be that surprising if Spaniards continued to vote to stop a real government from forming and messing everything up.