Businesses spooked by uncertainty on Catalonia

Jittery businessmen in Catalonia have put their investment plans on ice as they brace for the Catalan parliamentary election on Thursday.

Catalan retail sales and tourist arrivals are falling and unemployment is edging higher, recent figures have shown.

Investors and consumers typically react badly to uncertainty. Catalonia’s push to break away has brought Spain’s worst institutional crisis in decades.

The Catalan regional government was removed from office by Spain’s national government in late October after regional lawmakers passed a declaration of independence that Spanish authorities deemed illegal. That came after a 1 October independence referendum in Catalonia, which the Spanish Constitutional Court disallowed.