"There are reasons to think that this can go well, as long as policies do not spoil it", concluded Cristóbal Montoro, former Minister of Finance of the PP, referring to the Spanish economy, in his speech at the Proa Comunicación Observatory on Thursday 4 July. Montoro spoke on 'The Spanish economy and its pending challenges' to a large group of professionals and businesspeople as part of the Genoa Financial Club.
The Finance Minister, who has been at the "genesis" of more Budgets, 15, justified what he considers "an important and positive moment" for the Spanish economy in that it is at the head of world growth, with a positive balance of payments for the last six years, "for the first time in history", and the creation of 500,000 jobs per year. These factors make it "the most competitive growth" we have ever experienced. To graphically show the evolution, he recalled that in 1950, when he was born, there were ration cards and that in 1959 the per capita income was 2,000 dollars, while today it is 25,000 euros.
To prove his assertion, he turned his speech into a marathon of figures, "because everything that is not accounts, are stories," he said, alluding to a recent book by his former cabinet colleague Álvaro Nadal (Mariano Rajoy's Minister of Energy, Tourism and the Digital Agenda). He reviewed the per capita income from the 1950s to the present day, the percentages of exports by Spanish companies, investment, the evolution of public and private debt, unemployment, inflation...
He highlighted the process of internationalisation of Spanish companies and was particularly proud that nowadays it is also the medium-sized companies, not only the large public companies, that are going abroad. He put exports at 35% of GDP and pointed out that in 1996 the internationalisation of Spanish companies was 6% of GDP and now stands at 56%.
On the other hand, he highlighted the fact that, "compared to the rest of the world", Spain is repaying its debt and companies have a very good level of consolidation, which means that they can invest without credit. "The private sector has reduced its debt by 450,000 million euros", he reported. In fact, "direct business investment is higher than in Germany and France", he said. The same is not true of the public sector, which, in his opinion, must reduce its deficit and also its debt, and has the opportunity to do so by taking advantage of the low level of interest rates. A circumstance that he considered to be the result of the ECB's good work.
In order for this positive situation to continue, he recommended that the government continue to promote reforms, and more specifically, labour, public sector, banking and energy reforms. Something he considered essential in order to make the qualitative leap that "will take us to the head of the most advanced economies". He also advised putting the economy first in government negotiations in order to "be able to give continuity to growth and job creation" and, above all, given the lack of majorities in Parliament, to negotiate the budget in order to be able to move it forward. On this point, he revealed that, precisely, the Budget currently in force, the extended one that the PP Government agreed with Ciudadanos, PNV, Unión del Pueblo Navarro, Foro Asturias, Coalición Canaria and Nueva Canarias, "was designed to be extended". And he advised those who govern against repealing the Budgetary Stability Law and raising taxes, because, in his opinion, "there is money, there is no need to spend more".
The audience, who were also interested in unemployment, the tax system and inflation, were answered with a barrage of data and a detailed explanation of the evolution of each of these issues.
Cristóbal Montoro was born in Jaén and graduated with a degree and doctorate in Economics from the Autonomous University of Madrid. He was 'contaminated' by the "virus of politics" at the age of 43, when he was already a professor of Applied Economics in Santander. He has been Minister of Finance for 11 years, in the government of José María Aznar, between 2001 and 2004, and in those of Mariano Rajoy, between December 2011 and June 2018. He has been a member of Congress (for Jaén, Seville and Madrid) and his party's economy spokesman since 1993, with the sole exception of his period in the European Parliament, between 2004 and 2008. He was chairman of the Economy and Enterprise Committee in the Congress of Deputies from September 2018 until very recently.
The Proa Observatories are stable discussion forums with the participation of prominent executives, politicians and professionals. They are born with the vocation of being a laboratory of ideas where a genuine dialogue is fostered to debate current business issues, as well as corporate reputation, brand and public affairs as important elements for the improvement of companies.
Among the personalities who have participated in these meetings are the economist Manuel Conthe; the former Minister of Education, Culture and Sport José Ignacio Wert; the writer and priest Pablo D'Ors; the Director of External Communication of Deloitte, Antonio Belmonte; the Director of Communication and Institutional Relations of El Corte Inglés, José Luis González-Besada; the High Commissioner for Marca España Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros; the writer and journalist Pilar Urbano; the Director General of Información y Control de Publicaciones S.A. (OJD), Manuel Sala; the professor of Corporate Communication and Crisis Management at IESE Business School Yago de la Cierva; the president of Multinacional por Marca España, Chema Palomares; the president of Red Eléctrica de España, Jordi Sevilla, and the current mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, among others.