Canarian Weekly
16-11-2012, 13:10
THE day before the national strike Mariano Rajoy began his speech at the opening ceremony of the National Conference of Leaders of the Association for the Progress of Management by insisting that “the future must be met day-by-day through hard work. There can be no easy fix, miraculous measures or useless short-cuts; what we need is to set the right course and remain steadfast at the helm to hold that course”.
The President of the Government acknowledged that the current scenario is not good because the number of people out of work is approaching six million and no modern society can remain insensitive to those figures. He added that his Government encountered a very tough situation when it came to power but that its objective, then and now, remains unchanged: “to help Spain recover from the crisis”. To do so, measures have already been taken and more will be taken in the future. “We will only recover from the crisis within a context that involves the European Union”, said the President of the Government. That means we will have “to build more Europe”. He went on to say that “specific results are already being produced in terms of banking and fiscal union, to which Spain has been actively contributing”.
On the domestic front, reforms have already been implemented to curb public spending and increase revenue to meet fiscal consolidation targets. Mariano Rajoy recognised that “many of these measures are painful”, they are “measures that nobody likes to take” and, moreover, many of them “were not included in our election manifesto”. However, they are “necessary” because “if we are unable to reduce the deficit and achieve balance in our public accounts, everything else will crumble around us”. He insisted that “we cannot spend more than we collect”.
Mariano Rajoy highlighted the cut in ministerial spending and the tremendous effort being made by the regional governments to reduce the deficit by taking “tough and painful decisions” which many people do not understand, but which are “essential”. “The results of these efforts, even though we are in recession, are starting to be felt: the State deficit has been reduced from 4.26% in August to 3.93% in September while the regional government deficit stood at 0.9% of GDP in June”. “We are therefore witnessing an unprecedented effort, a very uncomfortable one but one that must be made”, he concluded.
The President of the Government expressed the need to undertake more structural reforms and defended, as one of the most ambitious commitments, the labour reform. “Despite the fact that we are still in recession, the first results of implementing this reform are already starting to reveal themselves”. He also mentioned the training of workers, especially young people, and highlighted the approval of Dual Vocational Training and the launch of the Training and Apprenticeship Contract.
Mariano Rajoy recalled that “we already knew that things weren’t going to be easy and they aren’t” but that his government accepted the challenge and warned of the problems regarding the deficit and the growing number of unemployed. It is always “better to base yourself on reality”, he added.
The President of the Government sent a message of hope because there are data that underline the increased competitiveness of the Spanish economy in terms of foreign trade and a surplus in the tourism sector. He explained that “without wishing to be over-optimistic; the situation is still very serious and the efforts yet to be made are still great, but positive data does exist to show that the traditional imbalances are being corrected”.
He stressed that “the Spanish economy will return to growth in 2014 and we can take encouragement from that” but “a long path of reforms” still remains ahead of us. “If we do not allow ourselves to be beaten, we can reach our goal. We will be capable of maintaining our course” and grow and create jobs, he insisted.
In order to achieve that, he said, we need to take “tough decisions” and “we need to fight on many fronts, not all of them here but in the European Union as well, and this Government will do that because it has a clear picture of its objective, its course is set and we know which instruments need to be used”
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/spanish-economy-returns-growth-2014/)
The President of the Government acknowledged that the current scenario is not good because the number of people out of work is approaching six million and no modern society can remain insensitive to those figures. He added that his Government encountered a very tough situation when it came to power but that its objective, then and now, remains unchanged: “to help Spain recover from the crisis”. To do so, measures have already been taken and more will be taken in the future. “We will only recover from the crisis within a context that involves the European Union”, said the President of the Government. That means we will have “to build more Europe”. He went on to say that “specific results are already being produced in terms of banking and fiscal union, to which Spain has been actively contributing”.
On the domestic front, reforms have already been implemented to curb public spending and increase revenue to meet fiscal consolidation targets. Mariano Rajoy recognised that “many of these measures are painful”, they are “measures that nobody likes to take” and, moreover, many of them “were not included in our election manifesto”. However, they are “necessary” because “if we are unable to reduce the deficit and achieve balance in our public accounts, everything else will crumble around us”. He insisted that “we cannot spend more than we collect”.
Mariano Rajoy highlighted the cut in ministerial spending and the tremendous effort being made by the regional governments to reduce the deficit by taking “tough and painful decisions” which many people do not understand, but which are “essential”. “The results of these efforts, even though we are in recession, are starting to be felt: the State deficit has been reduced from 4.26% in August to 3.93% in September while the regional government deficit stood at 0.9% of GDP in June”. “We are therefore witnessing an unprecedented effort, a very uncomfortable one but one that must be made”, he concluded.
The President of the Government expressed the need to undertake more structural reforms and defended, as one of the most ambitious commitments, the labour reform. “Despite the fact that we are still in recession, the first results of implementing this reform are already starting to reveal themselves”. He also mentioned the training of workers, especially young people, and highlighted the approval of Dual Vocational Training and the launch of the Training and Apprenticeship Contract.
Mariano Rajoy recalled that “we already knew that things weren’t going to be easy and they aren’t” but that his government accepted the challenge and warned of the problems regarding the deficit and the growing number of unemployed. It is always “better to base yourself on reality”, he added.
The President of the Government sent a message of hope because there are data that underline the increased competitiveness of the Spanish economy in terms of foreign trade and a surplus in the tourism sector. He explained that “without wishing to be over-optimistic; the situation is still very serious and the efforts yet to be made are still great, but positive data does exist to show that the traditional imbalances are being corrected”.
He stressed that “the Spanish economy will return to growth in 2014 and we can take encouragement from that” but “a long path of reforms” still remains ahead of us. “If we do not allow ourselves to be beaten, we can reach our goal. We will be capable of maintaining our course” and grow and create jobs, he insisted.
In order to achieve that, he said, we need to take “tough decisions” and “we need to fight on many fronts, not all of them here but in the European Union as well, and this Government will do that because it has a clear picture of its objective, its course is set and we know which instruments need to be used”
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/spanish-economy-returns-growth-2014/)