Brussels, 12/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - A group of European Commission experts will be in Madrid on Friday 13 April to assess the country's accounts as part of the process of monitoring economic imbalances in a number of countries, explained the Commission and the Spanish economy minister on Thursday.
Both the Commission and the Spanish government were keen to allay fears at a tricky time on the markets, where interest rates hit new highs on Tuesday as investors feared that Spain might not be able to meet its public deficit reduction targets.
A spokesperson for the Spanish ministry of the economy said that Commission experts would be looking at the 2010 figures for the current account, public and private debt, unemployment and exports and will be issuing a new report on Spain and a series of recommendations for the 22 June ECOFIN Council, but this is a routine visit. There was nothing special or urgent about it, she explained.
In Brussels, Olivier Bailly, a European Commission spokesperson, said it was a normal process that is carried out in 12 member states and had nothing to do with other issues currently under discussion with the Spanish government. He said the same assessments had been made in France and the United Kingdom in March and others would be carried out in other member states over the next few weeks.
Last month, the European Commission cast the spotlight on 12 countries, particularly France and the United Kingdom, due to their trade deficits and lack of competitiveness.
Spain was also on the list. At the end of March, it revised its deficit forecasts upwards for 2012 to 5.3%, rather than the previous forecast of 4.4%, giving rise to concerns within the European Union because the country's GDP is expected to fall by 1.7% and unemployment has hit a record high of 22% of the working population. On Tuesday, Brussels approved Madrid's 2012 austerity budget, but pointed out that details were lacking for the country's autonomous regions, which had seen their deficits shoot up in 2011.
On Thursday, the Commission said that countries should stand together, rather than various heads of state publicly criticising the Spanish economy. Bailly said that the Commission wanted the 17 eurozone nations to work together to protect their common currency, the euro, and any problem with economic and/or financial stability in one of the eurozone nations affected all the others as well. (LC/transl.fl)