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MADRID Thousands of health workers, on strike since last month, marched on Sunday in Madrid to protest against budget cuts and plans from the Spanish capital’s regional government to privatize the management of public hospitals and medical centers. It was the third time doctors, nurses and health workers have rallied since the local authorities put forward a plan in October to place six hospitals and dozens of medical practices under private management. The plan also calls for patients to be charged a fee of 1 euro for prescriptions. Workers launched an indefinite strike last month against the plan, which has [...]

MADRID Spanish oil major Repsol hopes to reach an agreement with Argentina on compensation for the nationalization of Repsol’s YPF subsidiary, the company’s chairman said in an interview published on Sunday. Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez seized control of YPF in April, accusing Repsol of investing too little and making the Latin American country overly reliant on expensive imports. “I still believe and hope that we can reach an agreement over YPF,” Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau said in an interview with El Pais newspaper. “I hope we can reach an agreement to compensate us for that which belonged to us.” Repsol [...]

MADRID Spain’s Santander plans to invest in the country’s so-called bad bank in a sign that healthy domestic lenders are willing to support the entity created to clean up the aftermath of a 2008 property crash. “The bank plans on investing in the bad bank,” a spokesman for Santander, Spain’s biggest bank, told Reuters on Saturday. Spain has set up the bad bank to siphon off toxic real estate assets from bank balance sheets that date from the property crash. The bad bank’s creation is a condition of receiving up to 100 billion euros ($ 127 billion) of aid in [...]

MADRID Spain’s biggest bank Santander on Thursday said it owned around 30 billion euros of Spanish sovereign debt at the end of September. “When it comes to public debt, exposure to Spanish sovereign debt is around 30 billion euros,” Santander Chief Executive Alfredo Saenz said during a conference call with analysts. He added the holdings had come down from 35 billion euros in the previous quarter after debt matured. Saenz also said bad loans would peak across the group towards the end of 2013. (Reporting by Sonya Dowsett and Blanca Rodriguez, writing by Julien Toyer, editing by Fiona Ortiz)

Protesters walk through smoke thrown by firemen and policemen during a demonstration of public service workers in Spanish Sevilla on September 29, 2012. Protests against the budget cuts errupted again on Saturday September 29, 2012. Spanish police officers attend a demonstration against government spending cuts in Madrid on October 2, 2012 . Demonstrators confront police near the Spanish parliament during a protest against spending cuts and the government of Mariano Rajoy on September 29, 2012 . Spanish workers take to the streets to demonstrate against the government’s austerity measures on September 15, 2012 in Madrid. A protester hits a pot [...]

Spanish entrepreneurs are keeping afloat by tapping niche markets.At 25%, Spain has the highest rate of unemployment in Europe, according to EurostatThe north-eastern region of Catalonia accounts for a fifth of the Spanish economyLondon — Niche markets — such as reusable diapers — are proving the buffer against recession for some Barcelona-based entrepreneurs.Monste Munoz is the founder of Tucuxi, a small business which specializes in ensuring growing families did not suffer from rising diaper bills. She told CNN’s Richard Quest the company was able to save families significant sums of money.”We have a key advantage for parents,” she said. “With [...]

MADRID Spain’s Banco Popular has called a board meeting to approve a capital increase of up to 2 billion euros ($ 2.57 billion), newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday. The bank was highlighted in an independent audit by Oliver Wyman as one of the banks that would need extra capital to ride out a serious economic downturn. The report on Friday said that Spanish banks will need a total of 59.3 billion euros in extra capital in such a scenario. The board meeting would examine the capital increase and suspension of dividend payments, El Pais said without citing a source. [...]

MADRID Spain’s debt will reach 90.5 percent of gross domestic product by end 2013 after hitting 85.3 percent of GDP by the end of this year, the government’s budget document showed on Saturday. The debt ratio included 30 billion euros of the planned 100-billion-euro aid request for the country’s banks, the document said. The Treasury saw gross debt issuance requirements of 207.2 billion euros next year after budgeting in 2012 for gross issuance of 186.1 billion euros. While almost all the issuance would be in medium- and long-term bonds and Treasury bills, the document noted the government would consider issuance [...]

People hold pro-independence Catalan flags in a demonstration calling for independence.Catalonia has requested a 5 billion euro ($ 6.3 billion) bailout from the Spanish governmentGalicia and Catalonia will hold regional elections in October and November respectivelyInvestors are wary that Spain could soon need financial support from European bailout fundsLondon — Spain faces a test of unity over the coming months as regional elections in Catalonia and Galicia threaten to destabilize the debt-ridden nation.With unemployment at a record 25%, borrowing costs spiraling and debt repayments looming, Spain is emerging as the possible next candidate to tap its eurozone peers for financial [...]

MADRID The Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha is planning to ask the government for 800 million euros ($ 1 billion) in aid money, Spanish state news agency EFE reported Thursday. Citing regional government sources, the report said the region needs the money in order to allow it to meet maturing debt and interest payments. News of the request comes comes hours ahead of an expected 2013 budget announcement and economy plan by the government. The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Maria Dolores de Cospedal, affirmed Thursday that it is necessary to ask the regional bailout fund for help, according to the [...]