Mercadona cashes in on tourists’ spending habits in Spain, five people arrested for crypto murder in Málaga and more news from Spain on Thursday December 11th.
Mercadona cashes in on tourists’ spending habits in Spain
According to data from Spanish business daily Expansión, Spain’s most popular supermarket chain expects to close the year with €1.8 billion in sales to tourists, 4.5 percent of its gross revenue, representing a 16 percent increase compared to the previous year.
The figure, calculated from transactions with foreign cards (and which therefore does not take into account cash or national card payments), is already more than double that of 2021, when holidaymakers spent €750 million at Mercadona (2.7 percent of the total).
Mercadona’s rise in popularity reflects a silent shift in international tourism spending patterns . “Faced with the increase in spending on accommodation and transport (the fixed costs for any tourist), the response from foreign tourists is to spend less on leisure and dining and spend more in supermarkets,” José Antonio Latre, a consultant and expert in the sector, told Expansión.
This new trend has been referred to in the Spanish press as el turismo del bocadillo, sandwich tourism.
Advertisement
Five people arrested for crypto murder in southern Spain
Spanish police said Wednesday they have arrested five people for abducting and murdering a man to steal his crypto money while another four were charged in Denmark.
The man and his partner were attacked in April in southern Spain. The man was shot in the leg when he attempted to escape, police said in a statement.
The pair were then “taken to a house where they were held for several hours while the perpetrators tried to access their wallets in order to steal crypto assets”.
The woman was freed at midnight and reported the abduction. Police later found her partner’s body in a wooded area at Mijas in Málaga province.
Following house searches in Madrid and Málaga, police seized pistols and “numerous items related to the crime”, including a pair of trousers marked with blood.
Spanish police did not specify when the arrests took place.
Of the four people charged in Denmark, two were already serving prison sentences for similar offences.
Kidnappings and attempted abductions in the crypto world have multiplied globally in line with the currency’s rise.
Spain’s economy will grow by 2.5 percent in 2026: ratings agency
The rating agency Scope Ratings forecasts that Spain’s economy will grow by 2.5 percent in 2026, driven by a more vigorous recovery than that of the main powers in the core of the euro.
With this rate of expansion, Spain would be among the top economies in the eurozone, exceeding the rates forecast for Germany, France and Italy.
Scope notes that the dynamism of the Spanish economy has been seen in other countries too, which will continue to be one of the main drivers of growth in Europe during the next year.
By 2026, the agency estimates GDP growth of 2.1 percent in Portugal, 2.0 percent in Greece and 3.0 percent in Ireland, while the Eurozone-21 aggregate is expected to grow by 1.4 percent.
Advertisement
Manchester City beat Real Madrid 2-1 in Champions League
Erling Haaland scored his 34th goal for club and country this season to give Manchester City a 2-1 win at Real Madrid on Wednesday and leave Xabi Alonso’s position as coach of the Spanish giants in grave danger.
Without injured superstar Kylian Mbappé, Madrid took the lead through Rodrygo but Nico O’Reilly and a Haaland penalty secured Pep Guardiola’s City the three points.
With additional reporting by AFP.
