“Don’t let the trees see the forest” is a popular saying. Economy Minister Carlos Padi and the rest of the government are boasting about a GDP growth of 0.7% in the first quarter and 2.5% in 2023. Let’s look at the economy in the woods during what many economists define as a quiet recession.
This is because the minister did not say that the growth in 2023 is clearly lower than the 5.8% growth in 2022 and the longer term analysis. Because our country was the most recessionary country in Europe in 2020, with a GDP decline of 11.2% compared to the European average of 5.6%. Looking at the average evolution of GDP between 2019 and 2023 In Spain we see it is 2.3 points, 50% lower than the EU average of 5.6%. In the same period, Portugal reached 7.8% and Ireland 35.4%. That means we have a long way to go.
And in this contextPedro Sánchez’s resignation to present a general state budget for 2024 due to his parliamentary weakness threatens to cut nearly two-tenths of GDP.The Bank of Spain has raised growth to 1.9%, but still far from the 2.5% reached in 2023, according to Funcas’ estimate.
The evolution of investment is very worrying, it is three points below the level of 2018 and only 19.3% of GDP, almost 3 points below the EU average. with an addition A fall in private consumption affected by a reversal of anti-inflationary fiscal measures, which would lead to a reduction in households’ disposable income and an increase in prices.
Spain is also the European country with the lowest purchasing power parity per capita income., one in ten families could not cover essential expenses. Spain’s per capita income in 2023 is 14% below the European average, compared to 9% below before the pandemic, and Spain’s purchasing power has declined by 5.5 points between 2019 and 2023.
Per capita income rose by 1.3% in 18 of the 27 EU countries, including Portugal and Ireland by 23.7%.
And, meanwhile, The inflammation, It was reactivated or reactivated in MarchThe most significant increase recorded in the last twelve months and accumulated 18.4% increase from 2019 The average salary has lost 615 euros in purchasing power over the past two years, as highlighted in a recent report by the Juan de Mariana Institute. A body that also confirms that the increase in the tax burden in Spain between 2018 and 2022 was 2.9 points above GDP, compared to a rise of only 0.1 points in the twenty-seven member states of the European Union. At the same time, the tax burden on salaries is already 40.2%, eight points higher than the OECD average.
All this with a new record Public debt exceeded 1.57 trillion euros, 107% of GDP.It is one of the most indebted countries in the world and has more than four million genuine unemployed people, one million more than the government admits.
If that wasn’t enough, the Secretary of State for Commerce confirmed it Investments by Spanish companies abroad fell in 2023 and reached only 18,655 million euros, 43% less than the previous year and reaching the levels of the 2012 crisis is what Pedro Sánchez and his partners say is a motorcycle. Yes, but a tuned motorcycle is seized without brakes and many national and international inspectors confirm that it is going in the wrong direction.
