"The imbalances of the Spanish economy are substantially either behind us or being resolved", says Mariano Rajoy

Rafael del Pino Foundation, Madrid

In his speech to close off the event at the Rafael del Pino Foundation, Mariano Rajoy pointed out that the main goal of the book by Minister Luis de Guindos is to outline "the path we had to take in those years, particularly in 2012, to redirect the economic situation of Spain".

The acting President of the Government recalled that at the end of 2011 Spain was in recession, unemployment had suffered more than 40 straight months of growth, the balance of payments and the public debt were "unsustainable" and a good part of the financial system was in a situation of "virtual bankruptcy". Furthermore, future expectations were "at a record low" and Spain was perceived overseas as the main risk for the euro and as "a threat to the global economy".

Faced with this panorama, he stressed, many saw only two potential options: leaving the euro or asking Europe for the Spanish economy to be bailed out. However, the government opted for a third option, "to undertake the structural reforms necessary to correct the imbalances of our economy and thus recover the lost competitiveness and rediscover the path towards growth and job creation", he explained.

From intense loss of jobs to intense creation of jobs

Pool Moncloa / Diego CrespoAccording to Mariano Rajoy, the raft of reforms adopted by his government is the most important in the recent history of Spain. Among many other initiatives, he quoted the measures to clean up the financial sector, the Code of Good Practices "to quell the drama of evictions", the Market Unity Act, the Budget Stability Act, the reform of the public administration services, the labour reform and the energy reform.

The acting President of the Government stated that "work well done and, in particular, the efforts and responsibility of the Spanish people bore fruit", which translated into "the imbalances of the Spanish economy generally either being left behind or at least on the path to being resolved, although there is still a lot of work to do".

He also underlined that Spain is the country to enjoy the fastest GDP growth of all the main European Union economies and that the pace of job creation is picking up fast. Going from an annual rate of increase of 10% unemployment to an annual decrease of 9% is what "has made sense of all the reforms and all the difficulties", he pointed out.

Consolidate healthy growth

Pool Moncloa / Diego CrespoMariano Rajoy advocated continuing with these policies and continuing to make progress on structural reforms, which would allow Spain to grow at a fast rate in the coming years, around 2.5% annually, "and even higher if the conditions are right".

In turn, this would allow around half a million new jobs to be created each year, "as has happened in 2014 and 2015", and to consolidate the implementation of a healthy and lasting model of growth based on competitiveness.

The political stalemate and lack of a government, he added, only generates mistrust and has a "clear cost", and "each day that passes this cost is made clearer and rises". "It is time to shut up and, as Ortega said, get to work on what really matters: the economy, employment, security and the future", he argued.