Chairman Of BBVA: “The Spanish Economy Is Growing”
January 27th, 2010
The chairman of BBVA, Francisco González, said today that the Spanish economy is already growing in comparison with the last quarter of 2009, which means that Spain is soon to emerge from recession after six consecutive quarters where there has been a decrease in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Gonzalez conceded that, although the economy is growing in January, the bank’s own predictions now estimate that in 2010 there could be an accumulated contraction of the economy of 0.8%. However, Gonzalez said that in recent months, the bank has improved its forecasts – in November 2009 it was thought that the economy would fall by 1.2% in 2010, later it updated the figures to 0.9% and now 0.8%.
Despite these improved forecasts, Gonzalez warned that the unemployment rate is likely to remain “very high” and will not come down significantly until the Spanish economy grows by 2%, “which will take time.” He called for the government to take early action to create jobs and reduce the government deficit. Gonzalez stressed that the priorities should be working to reform the economy to create jobs, and insisted it had nothing to do with reducing the cost of dismissal. Regarding the government deficit, he recommended that it should be a simple matter of monitoring the relationship between income and expenses.
This was stated by chairman of BBVA during a press conference to explain the financial results of the bank in 2009, a year in which the bank made a profit of 4210 million euros, 16.1% less than in 2008.
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