The Third Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calvià ± o, said this Saturday that the Government is working to approve in the Council of Ministers next Tuesday measures that improve the solvency of companies, such as extensions of the grace period and amortization of the guarantees of the Official Credit Institute (ICO).
This was stated during the closing of the ‘XXV S’Agaró Economy Meeting’, organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Spain, the Olof Palme International Foundation and The vanguard, in which he also highlighted that the Executive works, as has already been pointed out by the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, in support plans for the Horeca sector and commerce.
In this way, Calvià ± o highlighted the role played by the “safety net deployed by the Government” to help citizens, companies and the self-employed to cope with the social and economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and ensured that the effectiveness of the measures is reflected in the good GDP data and employment registered in the third quarter.
According to the minister, these results “give confidence to continue along the same lines in the future” so “we will continue to adopt the necessary measures to protect the productive fabric, employment and family income as long as necessary.”
Thus, he noted that “at first the shock plan was intended to guarantee liquidity of the economy as a whole “and that” in this phase we have to start looking closely at the solvency issues, to avoid that perfectly viable companies end up having to close. ”
Regarding ICO guarantees, Calvià ±o valued the agility of deployment of the measure as well as its effectiveness and large volume, for which he explained that until November 11, 876,000 operations had been carried out, 98% with SMEs and freelancers. for an amount of 81,787 million euros, and that have allowed mobilizing a total of 107,600 million. In this sense, he highlighted that the Spanish guarantee program is the one with the greatest weight over GDP among European countries.
On the other hand, asked about the recent news that indicates that Europe could have a vaccine against the coronavirus at the beginning of 2021, the minister assured that they are “very positive because they will allow us to control the epidemic and generate confidence in economic operators” , in addition to “eliminating the most negative macroeconomic scenarios.”
Along the same lines, Calvià ± o pointed out that in recent weeks “the risks” that the Government had in making its macroeconomic forecasts for 2021 have been reduced, such as the vaccine being delayed, there are commercial tensions, that there is difficulty in implementing the investment plan of European funds or that the impact of the crisis becomes structural, and he pointed out that “all estimates suggest that the second regrowth has a much smaller effect than the first”, according to Servimedia.
On the other hand, the economic vice president also underlined the importance that European funds will have and all the coordination work between administrations and with the private sector to allocate resources and start processes, emphasizing the uniqueness of each one of them, so he recalled that the Executive is working on a royal decree law to streamline all the processing of this public investment.
Save the Christmas campaign
For her part, the Secretary of State for Commerce, Xiana MÃ © ndez, announced this Saturday that the Government will push for “immediate action” for the commerce sector aimed at saving the Christmas campaign, given the restrictions to stop the contagion of Covid-19, which has affected a large part of the commercial fabric.
Xiana MÃ © ndez regretted that the temporary closure of shops, such as beauty centers, has had a special impact on “female employment”.
He has found that commerce represents more than 13% of the Spanish GDP and that 13% of the companies in the sector are micro-SMEs and self-employed, agents that he has described as essential for economic and social cohesion.
In this sense, he lamented the situation of vulnerability in which they find themselves, because “it has been a sector hard hit for an unprecedented situation. ”
INTERNATIONAL MARKET
Regarding foreign and international commercial activity, he said that the year 2020 had a good start but saw its dynamics interrupted in March by Covid-19, although it sees a “vigorous recovery” due to the reopening of borders.
It has highlighted the potential of growth of the agri-food sector towards the Asian market, since there has been an increase in exports to China of pork products by 200%, something that MÃ © ndez attributes to the “sophistication, quality and price” of the products.
Regarding the election of the next director of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is in the selection process, he hopes that “it will have a strong political weight and that it will bring together countries that are currently as distant as the United States and China” .
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