The need for balance in public accounts and to address deep reforms that increase productivity are the two messages that the president of Caixabank, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, launched as challenges for the Spanish economy to end the “weak points” that generate vulnerability.
Goirigolzarri recalled that, after the effort made by the pandemic, the debt to GDP ratio in Spain continues to be “very high” and a deficit close to 4% remains, “which I have not been able to correct at any time in the last decade”. He warned the president that this is happening “in an environment of normalization of interest rates”, with rises compared to the “exceptional conditions” of recent years, and with Europe calling for the recovery of “fiscal discipline”.
“All of this makes it very necessary, as the Governor of the Bank of Spain has pointed out, to define a plan to redirect our public accounts,” he assured.
Regarding “chronic low productivity”, he called for policies to stimulate supply, “which are synonymous with reforms, complex because they require broad political and social agreements, which currently seem difficult to achieve, but no less necessary to the future of the country.”
Goirigolzarri recalled the environment of low growth, inflation, “which has not been seen for 40 years, is showing resistance and is the biggest challenge” and debt levels that have increased notably due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. This has caused “a very abrupt rise” in interest rates, without having yet reached “historically high” levels, and which is expected to remain around 3.5% in the second and third quarters of 2023.
The president of Caixabank also referred to the volatility in the markets derived from the problems in American banks as a result of the case of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse. “I honestly believe that the Spanish banks are very well prepared and have enormous strength,” he clarified before calling for “a European banking union” and the creation of a “deposit guarantee fund.”
Goirigolzarri did not say a word about the bank tax, only that its impact is not incorporated into the results that he communicated to the general meeting because it was approved after they were set in May 2022.
He recalled that the ultimate objective of the merger between CaixaBank and Bankia was “to lead the transformation of the financial sector”, and added that CaixaBank wants to do so “with a differential model of doing banking, a very inclusive model and very close to families, companies and society”.
Regarding the strategic plan, it has ratified that it seeks to place the return on own resources above 12% at the end of 2024, the efficiency below 48% and generate available capital to distribute 9,000 million among shareholders in the period 2022-2024 .
The general meeting of Caixabank was held for the first time in years without the labor protests of the bank workers, once the merger process with Bankia and the reduction of staff that it entailed had been completed. Of course, the staff took the floor through union representatives to demand an improvement in their working environment.
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