According to the report Business Perspectives in Spain and Europe 2014 (“Perspectivas Empresariales en España y Europa 2014”) drawn up by several Chambers of Commerce all along the country and published yesterday, a “significant” improvement regarding the turnover of Spanish companies is to be expected for the present fiscal year. This improvement will be mainly generated by exports, as well as by a “slight improvement” of domestic sales. However, those two factors are not the only ones to be stressed in order to certify that 2014 has begun with some signs for optimism, but first things first.
In 2013 some positive signs within Spanish economy were already to be found, such as the return of international investors, which have been carried out different relevant transactions in order to acquire assets in Spain, or the stabilization of Spanish risk premium.
In addition to the abovementioned factors, Spanish companies have been also experiencing an increase of the domestic consumption, which has been one of the most severely hit parameter by economic recession over the past years. Job creation and reducing the unemployment rate will be essential in order to achieve such an increase. What is it then to be expected for 2014?
The report published yesterday shows that Spanish companies expect to improve their international sales during the present fiscal year. In fact, that should not be surprising at all, given the fact that exports have played a very important role in the economy of our country in the last years (their role became more and more relevant as the building sector lose part of its huge weight in the national economy), but it is still a great reason to be optimistic. Spanish companies are also expected to generate a sustained drop of unemployment throughout the present fiscal year and many of them have already developed recruitment plans.
Notwithstanding the above, Spain (and Spanish companies) still has some crucial challenges to face in its way to economic recovery, which necessarily will come by achieving an improvement of its national competitiveness. Thus, the Spanish government has some changes on the table that should be introduced as soon as possible, such as, inter alia, the reform of its Public Administration or the modification of the current occupational framework (it seems that some steps have been done in this regard in the past days).
Other measures that would contribute to the improvement of the current economic scenario would be a less contractive fiscal policy (for e.g. by means of implementing some incentive measures in order to increase the domestic consumption, which have already succeed in some sectors, such as the automotive sector) and a greater fluidity regarding the granting of loans to companies, and more specifically to SMEs, which nowadays still have to overcome many difficulties while financing their transactions.
http://www.expansion.com/2014/01/08/economia/1389184240.html
http://www.expansion.com/2014/01/08/empresas/1389139811.html
