Yesterday Pedro Sánchez put an end to an era in Spain's economic policy. Nadia Calviño concentrated the maximum responsibilities for five and a half years, in coordination with María Jesús Montero – “my sister”, as she defined her yesterday – and Teresa Ribera, mainly. But with the appointment of Carlos Body as the new Minister of Economy, the functions are distributed. The President of the Government has set up an unprecedented organization chart, since a Minister of Finance had not had more weight in the Council of Ministers than his Economy counterpart, without both departments being integrated. A promotion of the department responsible for spending in full fiscal adjustment
Carlos Body is the sixth Minister of Economy of the PSOE since the Transition, after Calviño, Elena Salgado, Pedro Solbes, Carlos Solchaga and Miguel Boyer, and the first to occupy a secondary position to that of the head of the Treasury. During the PP stage, with its three Ministers of Economy, Román Escolano, Luis de Guindos and Rodrigo Rato, this situation did not occur either.
Montero ascends to the First Vice Presidency with the essential mandate of carrying out the first General Budgets of the legislature and trying to reach an agreement to reform regional financing. She thus becomes the partial coordinator of economic policy since, although Corps is appointed rank minister, Sánchez has decided that Economía maintains the presidency of the Government's Delegate Commission for Economic Affairs, the CDGAE, the prelude to the Council of Ministers where all issues of the economic sphere pass.
The new first vice president loses, however, one of the Secretaries of State that until now depended on the Treasury. Sánchez has decided that the Public Service will be integrated into the Ministry of Digital Transformation. José Luis Escrivá will, therefore, be in charge of negotiating with public employees and will have the mandate, as stated yesterday by the President of the Government, to “take advantage of digitalization to improve the quality of public services.”
Poker in the engine room of the economic area, together with Montero, Ribera and Body, is defined with Manuel de la Rocha, director of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Presidency of the Government and promoted after the investiture to Secretary of State.
The renewed economic team of the Government faces a series of challenges, some of which were cited by Corps when receiving the minister's portfolio yesterday. Firstly, the consolidation of growth in an environment of deceleration and uncertainty. Secondly, fiscal responsibility and the reduction of the public debt ratio, at a time when the Government has just approved a new anti-crisis package with a cost of 5.3 billion. The correct development and materialization of the Recovery Plan is another of the priorities that Montero and Corps must attend to.
At a business level, Corpus maintains a close relationship with the large company, which is now moving up a level. Now he will interact directly with top executives. Especially with the financial sector, for whom he has been a fluid interlocutor. He has just reached an agreement to expand the code of good practices in mortgage matters and strengthen banking services for the elderly and dependents. The conversion of taxes on energy companies and banks into permanent ones is another pending issue.
In the labor field, the new Minister of Economy cited “full employment” as another of his objectives. The recovery of the purchasing power lost by salaries in the last two years, within social consensus, will be another of his objectives, while the Government continues trying to tackle inflation. One of the first decisions of 2024 will be to set the increase in the minimum wage.
Youth, also mentioned by Corps, is another issue that will be a priority in the coalition's economic policy. Specifically, facilitate their insertion into the labor market, as well as reduce the risk of poverty and social exclusion that new generations face. The problem of access to housing, with its own ministry this term, and the aforementioned reform of regional financing are also two notable aspects.
All this with an unstable horizon and in which, in principle, there do not seem to be conditions for the Government to be too ambitious in economic policy. In addition, the coalition has parliamentary partners with different interests in economic matters. Squaring the circle will not be easy.
