INFORMATION OF SPAIN 

Spain is a Constitutional Monarchy since 1975. The chief of state is King Juan Carlos I and the apparent heir is his son Prince Felipe. The king is also commander of the armed forces. The President of the Government is José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, since 14th March 2004, representing the socialist PSOE party. The central state power is in Madrid, but certain powers like tourism, environment, health, transport and agriculture policy are in different autonomous communities whereby each has its own parliament and its central government representative.

The Spanish Gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices and PPP (purchasing power parity) for 2005 is $1,026,340 million which makes an amount per capita of $24,803. Agriculture makes out 4% of the GDP, principally as wine, fruits, vegetables, olives and rice. Industry comes to 17,3% of the GDP. The most important Spanish Industries are food, textiles, footwear, petrochemicals, steel, automobiles, consumer goods and electronics.

As the largest fishing fleet in the EU, the Spanish fleet is another important economical factor. The remaining 65% are services with retailing, tourism, banking and telecommunications.

With over 50 million tourists a year, tourism in Spain is very important, earning the Spanish economy about $25 billion a year.

If you want to work in Spain it may be interesting for you that the unemployment in Spain is declining steadily but at 10,5% it is a relatively high rate within the EU.

In case that you consider buying Spanish property, it will please you that the interest rate for Spain is low, which makes it affordable to raise a Spanish mortgage, what it makes easier to buy Spanish property.

The Spanish Currency is Euro (1 Euro = 0.68510 GBP in October 2005). If you need to change your pound sterling in euro you can do this to the current rate of exchange in one of the numerous bureaus de change all over the country.

If you want to make a phone call to Spain or when your relatives want to call you on a Spanish telephone, it is necessary to dial the Spanish Calling Code 0034 or +34.

When you are moving to Spain or going to Spain on holidays and want to take some electric gadgets with you, you should notice that the Spanish current has 220 volts AC. You should also take an adaptor with you because Spanish sockets and plugs are different so that the plugs of your gadgets may be incompatible with the sockets in your Spanish property.

If you are from the UK at your first days you may have problems with the Measurement system. You should get used to the Decimal Metric System if you are not yet. At the beginning you may be confused and will have to convert quantities, weight and distances as well as the currency but you will get used to it very quickly.

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