The Minister of Economy and Competitiveness, Luis de Guindos, highlighted yesterday during the celebration of the events for the XXV anniversary of the consulting firm ATKearney in Spain that "the recovery of the Spanish economy is underway", after having corrected the imbalances accumulated during economic expansion Economic growth is accelerating, towards annual rates “close to 1.5%,” he explained. In his opinion, this improvement is due to the fact that Spain is today a competitive economy and that doubts about the future of the euro have been completely dispelled, a process in which the implementation of the Banking Union has been key.
De Guindos stressed that four quarters of growth are already accumulating and that this will be the first year that GDP will register a positive annual rate since the crisis began. According to the advanced indicators and estimates of the Ministry of Economy, the growth rate in the second quarter of the year will be higher than in the first. He pointed out that this improvement is due to a recovery in domestic demand, both in household consumption and in investment in capital goods, and the greater availability of new credit. Regarding the labor market, he stressed that the economy is already generating net employment and that, thanks to structural reforms, Spain achieves this with lower growth rates than in the past.
Despite these improvements, he pointed out that "there are important challenges ahead." He noted that "it is important to continue with fiscal consolidation." He also stressed that the Government continues to work on reforms such as the fiscal one, which aims to “establish medium and long-term incentives for the growth of the economy”; incentives related to saving, work and investment. He concluded that "Spain is a great country, with the ability to innovate and compete abroad, so it has a promising future."
