President Valcárcel comments on Paramount and Corvera

Meanwhile Moody´s downgrades the region’s debt rating.

The risk rating agency Moody s have downgraded the debt rating of Murcia, Andalusia, Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia and maintained  five other autonomous communities at their current levels . The agency has confirmed the debt of the Basque Country and the Provincial Council of Biscay in its Baa2 level, and also that of Madrid, Castilla y León and Galicia, Baa3, and the Valencian Community at B1.

Moody s, say that this measure concludes the review initiated on June 15, and stressed that all these regions have a "negative outlook". The risk rating for debt in  Andalusia passes  from Baa3 to Ba2,  Castile-La Mancha from Ba2 to Ba3 low and  Catalonia and Murcia (from Ba1 to Ba3). Moody s justified its decision in these cases by the deterioration of liquidity. The negative outlook was in line with the Spanish sovereign debt at Baa3.

This week Murcia is receiving financing from the FLA, the so-called bailout fund, which is helping to ease liquidity for the regional government, however, this inflow of money does little more than increase the indebtedness of the region and create an increased repayments burden for the future.

Yesterday the air above Murcia experienced a strange meteorological anomaly: a vast volume of hot air and a strange smokescreen hovering over the City, attributed by some "rustic commentators" to the regional paper La Verdad, who hosted a forum for the region´s top level politicians and businesses to offer their discourses about the current economical situation within Spain and Murcia.

Amongst the many topics discussed were two which are of interest to ex-pats: The Paramount Murcia Theme Park and Corvera airport.

President Valcárcel said that in his opinion the 30 million euros invested into buying land for the projected theme park at Alhama de Murcia by Jesús Samper and Premursa, as opposed to the 6 million invested in studies for the projected  London Paramount Park indicated that “the first is a much more solid project.”

The President said  that the London Paramount Park would not be competition for the Murcian park, as Murcia enjoyed 300 days of sun, but could be competition for Disneyland, with which it shares 300 days of rain. Imagine a park beneath the clouds,” he said.
(Eds note- the large scale waterpark will be under a dome, providing warm water and a climatised environment throughout the year, rain or shine.)

Reference Corvera airport
The President also said that Corvera airport would “open late spring,” although he declined to give a firm date for the opening saying, “that this decision was out of his hands.”

He also said that Aena had made a favourable report following the calibration flights and that the “era of paperwork” would soon be over. Corvera would inherit 1.3 million passengers from San Javier, as well as the new routes into the airport, he said.

Image: The President in the Regional Assembly recently.