The Social Security numbers over the last few years are really alarming. Although we still have not had any official confirmation, experts estimate that at end-21016 the system had a hole of nearly 18 billion euros, 40% more than in 2015, and almost six times over budget.
Ofelia Marín- Lozano | The productive model of the future should focus on boosting the country’s competitiveness (where education, the family, discipline and the incentive to do a good job are a necessary start). But sectors like construction should also be encouraged to recover their lost protagonism.
The AVE high-speed train has undoubtedly been one of Spain’s big success stories and very positive for its international image. Spain is not just the European country with the most high speed lines (2,900 km), in front of the pioneer (France), with 2,000, but it has also reached these levels in a little over 30 years. France took 30.
Julio Rodríguez | The economic recovery continues to boost a market which has seen prices rise 10.8% in the last three years. But this dynamism contrasts with the problems for accessing the housing market which young aspiring home owners are experiencing. A more energetic government policy is required to establish a pool of homes for rent and strengthen the creation of social housing.
The Bank of Spain warns that the Spanish economy is progressing against a backdrop of “high uncertainty” at the start of 2017, along the lines of what happened during most of last year, associated to a large extent with geopolitical events.
Latest reports on trade union affiliation are enough to push the top echelons of Spain’s big unions to the edge. The information available says union affiliation in Spain is at a four-decade minimum level and one of the lowest in Europe.
The Spanish economy grew at a rate of 3.2% in 2016, although signs of a slowdown are beginning to appear. Almost all the external factors which had boosted GDP growth latterly (the so-called tail winds) may disappear over this year.
On January 25, the rise in the wholesale price of electricity in Spain exceeded 100 euros per megawatt-hour, its record level. For many years, how electricity prices in Spain have been established has been a total nonsense, since the electricity pool functions like a marginal market. A division of the Supreme Court has decided to start proceedings to find out what the reasons are for the successive increases in electricity bills.
Everything seems to indicate that the Bank of Spain inspectors, one of the biggest elitist groups in Spain, feared even by the most powerful bankers, are not currently in a good place. The blame lies in the fact that the ECB, or rather the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), has taken over the function of banking supervision. This has left the inspectors somewhat bereft of functions, workload and influence.
Fernando Rodríguez | Next Banco Popular’s chairman Emilio Saracho is scheduled by end-February. People are waiting to see what his initiatives will be. Saracho is a deacon of coporate banking in Spain. Much is expected from him.