The Spanish government presented the major outline of its stability programme together with a structural reform plan. The country's most recent economic forecasts were also revealed on this occasion. The government is forecasting a GDP contraction of 1.3 per cent in 2013, growth of 0.5 per cent in 2014 and unemployment of 26.7 per cent in 2014, before it drops to 25 per cent in 2015.
The Vice-President of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, stressed that both plans aim to "drive the essential structural reforms necessary to iron out the imbalances in the Spanish economy and exit the recession in the coming years". Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría underlined that the great effort made by the Spanish people in 2012 has enabled the government "to tackle a raft of reforms that will be characterised more by structural reforms than by other adjustment measures". "The main taxes will not be raised, such as Personal Income Tax or VAT. Moreover, as far as possible, we will endeavour to reduce them in the near future", she highlighted.
The National Reform Programme 2013 represents another drive in the reformist agenda of the last year and includes measures aimed at improving the effectiveness, flexibility and ability of the Spanish economy to compete, together with other measures aimed at overcoming the difficulties in obtaining financing in the financial markets.
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IMF statement: Managing Director Christine Lagarde said: “I strongly support the Spanish government's objectives of restoring a sound fiscal position while securing a recovery and creating jobs. Today's announcement to pursue a more gradual consolidation path is a welcome step toward meeting these goals, building on major reforms and structural fiscal improvements last year.“
Press release, 26.4.13 © IMF
Commission statement: "The Commission welcomes the approval of Spain's National Reform Programme and Stability Programme. We look forward to receiving the documents as soon as possible, so as to be able to start our assessment. As announced on 10 April, the Commission will now examine the policy plans set out in these two programmes, to assess to which extent they are adequate given Spain's excessive imbalances. We will present our conclusions and recommendations on 29 May.
Regarding the fiscal targets, the postponement of the correction of the excessive deficit (to below 3 per cent of GDP) to 2016 is consistent with the current technical analysis by the Commission services of what would be a balanced - but still ambitious - fiscal consolidation path, given the difficult economic environment.
It is crucial that the fiscal path in the Stability Programme be based on prudent macro-economic assumptions and a sufficient amount of high-quality, structural measures. Our assessment in this regard will be also made public on 29 May.
Press release, 26.4.13 © European Commission
© La Moncloa - Government of Spain
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