Body defends entry into Telefónica: "France or Italy are also in telecommunications companies"

April 7 () –

The Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Carlos Body, has defended the Government's entry into the capital of Telefónica because “Spain is a country open to foreign investment, but it is not naive when it comes to making an evaluation of the impact of the arrival of foreign capital”, as he commented this Sunday in an interview in 'La Vanguardia', collected by Europa Press.

“We have a very useful instrument to protect the strategic interests of our companies and our economy in general. We are a country open to foreign investment, but we are not naive when it comes to evaluating the impact of the arrival of foreign capital Let's look at France, Germany, Italy, whose governments are present in their large telecommunications companies. I think that is the conceptual framework in which we have to move,” he assured.

Likewise, the minister has indicated that the Government is “comfortable” with the forecast of 2% GDP growth for this year because it “confirms the good situation of the Spanish economy.” “That 2.5% for 2023 is more than five times above the euro zone average and also has a particularly important component for the 2024 forecasts. And the fact is that in the last quarter growth accelerated and this represents an effect important drag for 2024”, he stated.

In this sense, Corpo has pointed out that the forecasts regarding the growth components for 2024 are focused on private consumption, where it is expected that there will be a “pull” as households recover the purchasing power they have lost with the “shock.” inflation in the last year and a half.

“Inflation is moderating and households, little by little, with salaries that grow above that inflation, are being able to recover that purchasing capacity. In fact, we have seen good data regarding savings also in recent days, and That reinforces private consumption as one of the main drivers,” he indicated.

In relation to the approval of the General State Budgets, Corps affirms that its approval is important because “the great economic policy priorities are framed there”, although it adds that with how “expansive” the 2023 budgets were, the extension By 2024 it will not represent “any impediment to carrying out the necessary investments.” “Although you have to do a little budgetary engineering to reallocate items. But it does not entail greater difficulty in that sense,” he clarified.

Furthermore, he has stressed that one of the great challenges of the Government in this legislature is to help young people in their emancipation with measures aimed at “affordable housing” and has indicated that the Government has a commitment to the progressive reduction of the deficit and debt .

“We see the repeated fulfillment of our objectives, in fact we are over-fulfilling, reaching 3.7% in 2023 and aiming towards that very important figure of 3% in 2024. The extended budget contains the necessary measures and the evolution of both the expenditure forecast as income to be able to fulfill it,” he noted.