The minister assures that the presentation of the PGE is not conditional on the amnesty and maintains the forecast of growing 2% this year
The Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Carlos Body, announced this Monday that the Council of Ministers will approve the deficit and debt objectives tomorrow after the PP overthrew them in the Senate.
“Tomorrow, after the Council of Ministers, the first vice president herself will point out and present the objectives. The important thing is to take these initial steps for the subsequent approval of the Budgets,” said Body in statements to TVE reported by Europa Press.
The head of the Economy recalled that the approval of these objectives is necessary to “alleviate the situation of the autonomous communities and give them a greater margin of flexibility” by 2024.
“In fact, many of them have already approved their budgets or have raised them based on the extra objectives that the Government gave them,” the minister stressed.
Last week, the absolute majority of the Popular Party in the Senate overturned the budget stability objectives for all public administrations in the period 2024-2026 proposed by the Government, so the path had to be approved again by the Council of Ministers and go through the parliamentary process again.
According to the Budget Stability Law, if the Congress or the Senate reject the objectives, the Government, within a maximum period of one month, must submit a new agreement that will be subject to the same processing procedure.
If the objectives are not approved a second time, according to a report from the State Attorney’s Office, the stability objectives would be those included in the Stability Program sent to the European Commission last April, which are more demanding for communities and town councils.
The PP has charged against this “non-existent report” from the State Attorney’s Office mentioned by the Treasury that assures the processing of public accounts in 2024. But sources from the Department headed by María Jesús Montero assured Europa Press that this report will be known in the in case the PP rejected the objectives for the second time.
However, the Government’s intention is to approve the General State Budget Law (PGE) for 2024 in the first part of the year, at a time marked by the reactivation of European fiscal rules.
To do this, the non-financial spending limit, known as the spending ceiling, of the State Budget for 2024 – which the Cortes Generales does not vote on – is already ready, which rises to 199,120 million euros, 0.5% more with respect to the previous year, including funds from the European Union.
In the last meeting of the Fiscal Policy Council with the autonomous communities, the Treasury proposed a deficit of 3% in 2024 for all administrations, 2.7% in 2025 and 2.5% in 2026.
In the case of the autonomies, a target of 0.1% was established for 2024. For 2025 and 2026, the communities will seek budget balance. For local entities, the budget balance (0%) from 2024 to 2026 was also agreed, while for Social Security the deficit was set at 0.2% for 2024, 0.1% for 2025 and 0% by 2025.
BODY: THE PGE, ON THE MARGIN OF THE AMNESTY
The Minister of Economy assured this Monday that the Government is working “very intensely” to approve the 2024 Budget “as soon as possible.”
Asked if the negotiation of the amnesty with Junts is conditioning the presentation of the Budgets, Corpus has defended that the public accounts process “has a life of its own” because they are the main tool to carry out economic policies.
ECONOMIC FORECASTS ARE MAINTAINED
As for whether the Executive will maintain the economic forecasts for this year (2%), the minister has assured that “of course” they will be maintained.
“In fact, the latest data have validated our approach. A couple of weeks ago we learned the final growth data for 2023 with an upward surprise, with a maintenance of the growth pulse at the end of 2023 and this already generates a very positive effect for 2024 and puts us in an advantageous starting point to meet our 2% objective,” he highlighted.
Body has stressed that the Government will continue to deepen this year in its objective of full employment and advance in reforms related to the labor market, especially with what has to do with the requalification of workers.
On the other hand, he pointed out that the Executive’s intention is to continue influencing the productivity and competitiveness of the foreign sector as another vector of growth for the Spanish economy.
“In addition, we will continue to advance and count on the Recovery Plan as the main axis of aid and transformation of our economy, not only this year, but in the coming years,” he added.
REDUCTION OF WORKING HOURS, BUT WITH FLEXIBILITY
Asked about the Government’s objective of reducing the weekly working day to 38.5 hours this year and to 37.5 hours in 2025, Corps explained that the important thing is that this measure is “compatible” with the evolution of productivity, and that has the necessary flexibility for companies to carry it out.
“It is a trend that we are going to have to evolve and I believe that the contacts that companies are having right now with the unions themselves are being productive and fruitful to raise this discussion in a context of necessary flexibility so that it can be carried out. carried out efficiently,” Corps said.
GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH YOLANDA DÍAZ
The minister also recalled that the reduction of working hours is one of the measures that are in the Government agreement with Sumar. “Of course we are going to move towards it and what I am saying is that we have to do it in a way that both companies and unions feel comfortable in this agreement and that we negotiate it with enough flexibility so that it has a positive effect,” he argued.
Asked about the relationship between his Ministry and Yolanda Díaz’s Ministry of Labor after the clashes they had when Nadia Calviño headed the Economy, Corpus stated that the relationship is “unbeatable.” “I have to say that we have a great professional relationship, as with the rest of the ministers of the Council of Ministers,” he assured.
