2023-06-14 03:43:56
The wealth per Spaniard represents 0.83% of the European average in return to the box of 30 years ago, according to the Bank of Spain
The great economic challenge for Spain is paradoxically outside the electoral campaign. The Spaniards now have the same per capita income as in 1996 compared to the average of the countries that currently form the Eurozone after three lost decades.
According to official data from the Bank of Spain consulted by this newspaper and used as the basis of its annual reportthe Spanish per capita income It currently does not exceed 0.83% of the euro average, identical to that of that year 1996 and very close to the 0.80% of 1993,
Therefore, a return to the square of 30 years ago in the dream of convergence with Europe. It is because, Although Spain’s per capita wealth has risen in various stages since then, it has done so well below the average. of the countries that make up the euro since its creation in 1999.
The photo that equates 2022 with the 1990s does not mean that there have not been ups and downs along the way. In 2005 the maximum level of convergence was reached when governing Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero after eight years of José Mara Aznarthe average per capita income reached 0.91% of the euroaccording to data from the Bank of Spain.
It remained at a distance of only nine points when it is currently practically double that, 17%. However, heThe bursting of the bubble starting in 2007 and a greater crisis than other European countries starting in 2008 widened this depressing gap.
It bottomed out between 2011 and 2015, but it began to recover ground in recent years. Mariano Rajoy and first of Pedro Sanchez in power consolidating a distance of 13%. The pandemic arrived in 2020 and the debacle of the Spanish economy surpassed any other Western economy to the point that average income fell to 0.81% of the European average, a level identical to that of 1991.
The subsequent economic rebound has slightly improved the bar to the aforementioned 0.83% as it is Spain. the last major Eurozone economy to return to pre-pandemic levels.
In the first financial crisis, the Rajoy government could not prevent Malta from overtaking it in convergence. And, that of Sánchez, that they have also achieved a overtaking five other countries: Cyprus, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Estonia. That is why Spain currently occupies a discreet position number 18 in the per capita income classification of the community club, according to Eurostat.
The Governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernandez de Cos, already put this setback on the table in its annual report on May 10 and this Tuesday launched it as a challenge that cannot be ignored after the July 23 elections. In a speech On the 45th anniversary of the newspaper Cinco Dás, Hernández de Cos asked to start from the recognition of the absence of a sustained convergence of our economy towards per capita income levels in the euro area in recent decades. Spain presents, today, a per capita income that is 17% lower than that of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), a differential that is four percentage points lower than that existing in 1978, but eight higher than that reached in 2005.
He criticized the mistake of not having understood the rules of the euro and called for a great State pact after the elections to promote productivity and employment to resume convergence. In a few weeks, Spain will hold general elections, which should give rise to an in-depth debate on these challenges (…) should emerge some minimum consensus on which are the most appropriate policies to face them (…) Guaranteeing a sustainable improvement in the well-being of citizens and real convergence will depend, to a large extent, on this.
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