Imogen CalderwoodSPAIN has become the only European country with improved economic prospects for 2015, according to the International Monetary Fund.
The Washington-based IMF has announced that Spain’s economy will grow by 1.3% in 2014 and by 1.7% in 2015, up from July’s forecasts of 1.2% growth this year and 1.6% growth next year.
This is the fastest predicted growth of any advanced European economy, despite a public debt of nearly 100% of GDP, a 25% unemployment rate and no alternative to construction as an engine of growth.
“Growth in Spain has resumed, supported by external demand as well as higher domestic demand reflecting improved financial conditions and rising confidence,” according to the IMF report.
Spain has been recording gradual gains over the last 12 months, driven first by exports and later by increased consumption, in turn encouraged by job creation.
Elsewhere at the IMF Annual Assembly, things were not looking so positive.
Worldwide, expectations for global growth have fallen to 3.3% for 2014 and 3.8% for 2015, down from 3.4% and 4.0% respectively.
This is the third time this year the IMF has cut its global growth forecasts.
Across the Eurozone, growth forecasts have fallen to 0.8% for 2014 and 1.3% in 2015, down from July’s forecast of 1.1% for this year and 1.5% for next.
“There is a risk that the recovery in the euro area could stall, that demand could weaken further, and that low inflation could turn into deflation,” said Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist.
“Should such a scenario play out, it would be the major issue confronting the world economy.”
I wonder who is cooking the books?
All to be taken with a pinch of salt, no a shovel full of salt. The IMF relies on the figures reported to it by the Spanish government, so they are very likely to be seriously misleading… The fundamentals are not looking good for Spain, in fact, they are looking very bad, ditto the whole of the Eurozone.
Maybe when you reach bottom, the only way is up.
And now spain fines drivers for both real and madeup reasons – 500 million euros they made last year – so of course the books are looking better.
How about thinning down government employees, & reducing corruption, or allowing the housing market to reflect the true value (thousands of empty properties / homes can be deemed illegal at will)
oh silly me, bankers dont care about people!
Economic prospects have improved by totally cutting back on all services, running them into the ground and letting the countries infrastructure mostly disintegrate. Great way of getting an economic recovery going lol.
I have not known it to be tougher than it is at the moment the crisis is at its worse with the price of living rising daily.i would love things improve bit I am ground level and things are slowly getting worse.
These figures are ambiguous because the UK has the strongest economy in Europe at the moment. The IMF are predicting that the UK economy will grow by 2.7% in 2015 which is higher than the 1.7% figure quoted for Spain.
So the IMF either mean the “Eurozone” and not “Europe” or they are being pedantic because the UK’s original 2015 growth figure was predicted to be slightly higher than 2.7%.
To say that “Spain is the only EU country with improving economy” is not strictly true is it? This shows how misleading stats can be.