Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced yesterday before large international investors and the main Spanish listed companies that Spain is “going to fight so that European funds have a second edition starting in 2026” to “address the digital transformation and the ecological transition and lay much more sustainable foundations in all areas.”
The President of the Government spoke these words during the closing ceremony of the international financial forum Spain Investors Day (SID), which concluded yesterday in Madrid after two days of debates in which large investors from all over the world, the highest authorities of the Government participated of Spain and the regulatory and supervisory bodies of the market and about forty Spanish companies that represent more than 70% of the market capitalization of the Ibex 35.
During his speech, Sánchez highlighted the “extraordinary resilience and strength” of the Spanish economy in a context of volatility, uncertainty and “unprecedented transformations.” “Spain has more than demonstrated that it knows how to break inertia, that it is capable of challenging trends and overcoming the darkest predictions and that it is willing to advance on the path of modernization,” he continued.
Likewise, the president announced that the Government is going to give “new momentum to the country” in the new legislature through a reformist and modernizing agenda whose objective is to achieve “full employment”, the digitalization of the Administration, the reindustrialization of the country, the sanitation of public accounts, fiscal responsibility and the promotion of sustainable finances, all of this “with full confidence in our human, technological and physical capital.”
According to Sánchez, despite the complex geopolitical scenario, the Spanish economy is showing “extraordinary resilience and strength”, after closing 2023 with growth of around 2.4% and having “very positive” forecasts for 2024. In addition, He continued, average annual inflation stood at 3.4% in 2023, more than two points below Eurozone inflation, and more than half a million new jobs were created last year. “Spain presents the best forecasts of the five largest economies in the Eurozone in three basic aspects such as employment, exports and investment,” he assured.
The behavior of the Spanish economy, he continued, is partly due to the deployment of European funds. According to Sánchez, Spain is a leader in the reception and execution of Next Generation European funds and resources worth 34,000 million euros have already been activated in calls already resolved, with more than 600,000 beneficiaries, more than half of them companies. Added to this are the additional 94,000 million euros of the Addendum to the Recovery Plan.
Likewise, he assured that Spain is “going to fight so that the European funds have a second edition starting in 2026”, since “Europe needs these resources to address the digital transformation and the ecological transition” and to “lay much foundations”. more sustainable in all areas: social, economic, fiscal, financial and environmental.”
Pedro Sánchez also assured that Spain generates confidence in international investors because it has an institutional environment “highly conducive to foreign investment” because it is one of the countries with the lowest barriers to investment, according to the OECD. “Spain is an ideal place to invest,” he said. “Our democratic institutions are strong and contribute to reinforcing political stability, legal security and social peace,” he added.
Carlos Cuerpo
Before Pedro Sánchez’s intervention, the Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Carlos Cuerpo, presided over a working lunch with those attending the forum in which he assured that Spain “has recorded eleven consecutive years of current account surpluses, a fact record that has not been seen in a long time”, which has turned our country into the “growth engine of Europe”. “Growth trends in Spain are sustained thanks to a robust labor market, as well as a solid foreign sector,” he said. He also highlighted that “more than 40% of investment in Spain is foreign” and conveyed his “determination to maintain a continuous economic policy to renew investor confidence in the Spanish economy.”
The day included a breakfast and a round table on investments in Madrid in which the president of the Autonomous Community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, assured that Madrid is the region that has created the most jobs and that has attracted the most investment in 2023 and, therefore, “there is no better place to talk about the future challenges of the Spanish economy.” “In Madrid, we generate almost 20% of the national GDP, and we receive almost three out of every five euros of foreign investment; that is, more than 10.2 billion euros,” she added. Díaz Ayuso also took the opportunity to announce the first notebook that will serve as a guide to investments in the region.
