The First Vice President Nadia Calvinohas announced this Thursday that the Government will examine next week whether the different productive sectors, in general, and the energy and financial sector, in particular, they have taken advantage of the inflation crisis and the war in Ukraine to boost their profits. The Spanish Executive will convene next week for the first time the Observatory of business margins. “We will have the first meeting (…) to analyze all the available information and see if there is a widening of the margins in the different sectors,” assured the Minister of Economy in statements to the press in Paris, after being asked on the way in which the distribution chains have benefited from the reduction in VAT on food.
Vice President Calviño announces the celebration next week of the first meeting of the Observatory of business margins
“There are sectors in which there has been a widening of business marginssuch as energy or banks, two areas in which precisely for this reason we have established an extraordinary tax on extraordinary profits in order to have a fair distribution,” said the socialist leader, who traveled to the capital French to participate in a summit on the fight against climate change in countries of the global South. “On the 29th I have a meeting with the representatives of the users of financial services and the bank employers, to see how to continue supporting those families that are most affected by the rapid rise in mortgage interest rates,” he added. .
The Observatory of business margins will be launched next week with its first meeting. In addition to the Ministry of Economics, the Observatory participates in Bank of Spain and the Tax Agency. In principle, this first meeting will be of a technical nature, without the presence of the highest representatives of these organizations.
Extension of the VAT reduction on food
The Executive will examine whether these sectors have taken advantage of the inflation crisis at a time when the extension of some of its star measures to deal with inflation is finalizing. Calviño has confirmed his willingness to extend the VAT cut on food beyond June 30: “We will continue to maintain it (& mldr;) as long as inflation is higher than what would be acceptable. The coalition government of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos is also open to extending aid for public transport. “It is undoubtedly one of the star measures. Not only because it represents significant relief for the pockets of families, but also because it is in line with promoting more sustainable transport”, the vice president has defended.
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Despite the good macroeconomic data —the forecast for growth in Spain this year (above 2%) is more than double the average for the euro area—, the electoral shock of May 28 reflected the economic malaise that prevails in a considerable part of Spanish society. The recovery and the aid promoted do not reach the pockets of all citizens. At least that’s how the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, recognized it last week: “People are having a hard time,” said the leader of the leftist coalition Sumar in the general elections on July 23.
The PSOE minister has defended a more optimistic —or less realistic, according to her detractors— discourse on the economic situation. “The Spanish economy is experiencing very strong growth. We have protected family income, which explains why the disposable income of Spanish households is improving, even in such a complex international context,” Calviño stated. And indeed, she has accused of “economic denialism & rdquor; to the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, for considering that “the Spanish economy is stagnant or even in decline& rdquor ;.