Exports by Catalan companies have seen a record September, a record quarter (from July to September) and record totals for the first nine months of the year. That is data from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, headed by Luis de Guindos and, as such, free from any sort of touching up by the Catalan government which, on the other hand, doesn't exist, after Mariano Rajoy used the public prosecutor to take all its members to prison, except for president Puigdemont and four ministers exiled in Brussels.
These statistics are especially important for two reasons: first, because the Catalan economy, in terms of exports, remains unstoppable. That fact that they came in as turbulent a month as September (the independence referendum was held on 1st October, the origin of all the economic ills, according to the Spanish government) shows how much stamina the Catalan economy has. Second is the obvious fact that it isn't Catalan politics destabilising its economy but the intrusiveness of Spanish politics which is decisively affecting the Catalan economy. Companies have left Catalonia over the political situation, sure. But, who can now deny that the Spanish government aided and encouraged many of these corporate moves, above all those by the most important companies.
It is meaningless for the same cabinet to now ask for there not to be a boycott of Catalan businesses when it had previously spurred the departures and established ad hoc regulations to be able to skip over legislative steps. The damage which the Spanish state could do to the Catalan economy is already done and is very directly affecting tourism, hotel occupation and consumption. In this sense, the images of the referendum were shattering and the police intervention painful at the moment of creating a state of anxiety and worry in the image of the Catalan capital. Who would travel to a city like that or a country whose governors have been imprisoned as if they were evildoers?
On the one hand are exports and on the other is the Port of Barcelona led by Sixte Cambra, which has also recorded the best quarter in its history as the European port which has grown the most in container traffic. By the way: what came of the story when they burst into the Port in February and held Cambra for ten hours (link in Catalan) and then we heard nothing more? We can imagine what would happen if the power of the Catalan economy could act without the obstacles it always comes up against and if it had the permanent support of the public powers instead of the financial suffocation by Spanish Economy minister Montoro and the kidnapping of its institutions?