The attractiveness of Spain for investors stands out despite the political context
MADRID, 18 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Carlos Body, has reiterated that the commitment to bring the public deficit to 3% in 2024 will not be truncated “in any case” by the extension of the General State Budgets for the year 2023.
This was stated during the conference ‘Situation and perspectives of the Spanish economy’, organized by the ‘la Caixa’ Economy and Society Foundation Chair, and which was led by the minister himself.
As it had already advanced on other occasions, and after learning last week that the Government has chosen to work on the public accounts for 2025, maintaining the extension of the 2023 Budgets, Corps has repeated that the Executive is not going to forget the element of fiscal responsibility, which is “unavoidable” for the growth of the Spanish economy.
In this sense, he stressed that the commitment of 3% public deficit in 2024 “will not be affected” in any case by this decision, since it represents one of the three great challenges that Spain currently faces in economic matters.
“My assessment, a priori, is that the impact of the budget extension on our forecasts is minimal. We are not going to touch either the deficit or growth forecasts based on the extension process,” he stressed.
Another of the great systemic challenges to which the minister has referred is related to economic security in the context of redefining the geopolitical situation, which requires decisive action in terms of employment.
According to him, there is still “a long way” to reach the mantra and objective of full employment, since the structural unemployment rate of the Spanish economy continues to be “unaffordable” and too high when compared to other advanced economies.
Thus, he has urged to continue working to reduce it, at the same time that the qualification of workers must be addressed, which necessarily involves being able to identify the talent value chain, with a clear diagnosis of the deficiencies and imbalances in terms of skills and matching between supply and demand in the labor market.
The third challenge is the modernization and competitiveness of companies and the productive fabric. The reformist desire, he has indicated, must also encompass the productivity of Spanish companies, for which he has valued the recovery plan that allows widespread access to large company projects, but also reaches small companies.
Asked about the influence of the political situation on Spain’s economic performance, the minister defended that both internally and in the rest of Europe the model of minority or coalition governments reigns, which is why he pointed out that investors become accustomed to “a context of dialogue and negotiation”, which is not an impediment to attracting their capital.
“I believe that this dialogue and negotiation must be used so that legislative projects come out,” he noted. Thus, she has reiterated that investors are showing growing interest in Spain because the accounts fit them.
The qualification of the workforce, the macroeconomic growth forecasts, the expected profitability or the energy differential are some of the elements that the minister has highlighted to point out that Spain’s situation continues to be “advantageous” for a lot of investment to continue arriving.
