The Secretary of State and Director of the Office of Economic and G20 Affairs in the Prime Minister's Office has analysed the outlook for the Spanish and international economy for the year 2025 in a new session of the Current Affairs Dialogues of PROA Comunicación, in front of a large group of businessmen and representatives of sectoral associations.
PROA Communicationa consultancy firm specialising in designing, managing and consolidating the communication and corporate reputation of institutions and companies, as well as of senior executives, has held a new edition of its Current Affairs Dialogues with the participation of Manuel de la Rocha VázquezSecretary of State and Director of the Office of Economic Affairs and G20 in the Presidency of the Government.
During his speech, Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez analysed the outlook for the Spanish economy for the coming year, as well as reviewing the main international milestones in economic matters. In this respect, he pointed out that our economy is one of the most open in the world and that "it has become an enormously attractive country for investment".
Regarding the international context that will mark the economic agenda for the coming year, he reviewed the main elements to take into account: the protectionism of some countries such as China and the United States; accelerated digitalisation and the data economy; the fight against climate change and the government's agenda in this area, one of the most demanding at European level; the geopolitical conflicts that still have an impact on the costs of some raw materials; and the rise of nationalist populism, which questions the foundations of liberal democracies.
Good prospects for 2025
In September the government released new growth forecasts for this year, as well as for 2025 and 2026. Specifically, it raised the forecast for 2024 by three tenths of a percentage point, to 2.7%. While for "2025 and 2026, the economy will grow by 2.4% and 2.2%, respectively, two tenths of a percentage point more than the government's estimates so far".
In addition to the good expectations of the Executive, the OECD forecasts that the Spanish economy will close this year with a 3% of expansion, placing growth for 2025 at 2.3% and for 2026 at 2%. These figures are above the rest of the Eurozone countries.
On this point, Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez added that the strength of the Spanish economy can be summarised in three fundamental elements: "A very dynamic labour market, which is capable of growing at very significant rates and with quality employment"; secondly, the "strength of the foreign sector" with a focus on tourism and non-tourist services, highlighting those of "high quality, such as engineering, consultancy, auditing and financial services". Thirdly, he highlighted the investments and reforms of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. He also highlighted the impact that low energy prices are having on competitiveness, thanks to the development of renewable energies.
"Spain is doing its homework".
At the beginning of the meeting, which was attended by numerous senior executives and managers of Spanish companies, Lucía CasanuevaThe Spanish economy is now the European economy most dependent on the foreign sector, which could be affected by the arrival of Donald Trump to the US presidency and his promises of protectionism," said PROA Comunicación's managing partner. Despite an uncertain global environment, our country has two shields: its main market is the European market and its most important sector is the services sector. Everything seems to indicate that we have more light than shadow.
At the time of going to press Current Affairs DialoguesAt the meeting, different decision-makers from the business world had the opportunity to talk to Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez about the challenges facing the European economy, energy prices, investment in defence, the performance of domestic consumption in Spain, the energy needs of various industries, as well as the impact that Donald Trump's new tariff policy may have, especially with China.
On these issues, the Secretary of State and Director of the Office of Economic Affairs and G20 of the Presidency of the Government assured that, despite the situation in Germany, "Spain has continued to maintain its levels of growth, three times more than the Eurozone as a whole in 2024", and that in the face of this global scenario "Spain is doing its homework and we have managed to maintain very important levels of exports".