The labor market continues at a good pace. If the data for March were positive, those for April will be too. They will be known tomorrow, but the First Vice President and Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, has taken advantage of the appearance after the Council of Ministers to anticipate that in the first four months of the year more than 400,000 new jobs have been created, which represents a growth of 100,000 new affiliates per month.
Calviño has highlighted that, in the figures that will be published tomorrow, there will be a general increase in affiliation in all sectors, with special incidence in areas related to non-financial services, non-tourism services, information technologies, science and new digital economy. In addition, he has pointed out that, for the first time, in the Spanish labor market "quantity and quality go hand in hand", in a reference to the longer duration of employment contracts and the reduction of temporary employment. "We are facing a structural change in our labor market," said Calviño.
These are data that Calviño places in a positive context of the Spanish economy, framed in the economic growth in the first quarter of the year, and that place Spain only two tenths away from recovering the level of GDP prior to the pre-pandemic. Spain was the European economy that fell the most due to the pandemic and now, according to the vice president, it is also the one with the most intense recovery since the summer of 2021.
The Government, in turn, highlights that the price of food has begun to slow down. It is the verb that Calviño herself used this Wednesday to highlight the underlying inflation data for April, which fell by nine tenths compared to the same month last year. With this trend, the socialist area of the executive has once again ruled out an intervention in the shopping basket, as the Podemos wing insists.
Calviño has defined the fight against inflation as "the main economic challenge" of the Government. With a general CPI located in the lower part of the European table, at 4.1%, for the Ministry of Economic Affairs, this slowdown in food prices was what caused a reduction in core inflation of nine tenths, to 6.6%, according to advance data from last month.
The Government's economic manager has highlighted, however, that there are some products that have risen in price due to the drought that affects the entire Peninsula with special incidence in some areas, such as the interior of Catalonia or the Guadalquivir and Guadiana basins . In this sense, Calviño has advanced that we will have to wait for the detail of the inflation data for April that the National Institute of Statistics (INE) will offer to "assess the impact of the drought on some products." Livestock, beekeeping, dryland cereals, olive groves or fruit trees are some of the products affected by the lack of rain.
The first vice president has affirmed that she shares the "concerns" of citizens about the rise in food and also variable mortgages. It has declared the measures already in place effective: the reduction in VAT on some products, the transfers to the most needy families, among which is the check for 200 euros and, in addition, it has highlighted initiatives such as shopping baskets sales that have launched some supermarket chain.
On the horizon of the Government, it is contemplated to approve a new decree with anti-inflation aid at the end of June, which is when some measures in force decay, such as the reduction of VAT on some foods. There is fiscal margin and the initiative is compatible with fiscal compliance. Precisely this Wednesday the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, presented a report to the Council of Ministers on the fiscal path and the decision, embodied in the Stability Program sent to Brussels, to reduce the public deficit to 3% next year , a year ahead of schedule.
