– Spanish officials affirmed the magnitude of the country’s export boom today after the best annual performance on record as they count on a repeat in 2014 to sustain the economic recovery. –
– Deputy Trade Minister Jaime Garcia-Legaz announced in Madrid that the value of goods sold abroad last year rose to the highest level since at least 1971, and the trade deficit shrank to the smallest on record too. Those data, signaled by Spain’s tax agency on Feb. 19, follow an improvement in competitiveness Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy claims credit for. –
– Spain’s competitiveness is improving and the number of exporters is increasing,” he said…Deputy Economy Minister Fernando Jimenez Latorre already raised the government’s 2014 forecast for export growth of goods and services last week from 5.5 percent to as much as 7 percent — almost double the 3.7 percent increase predicted by the European Central Bank for the entire euro area. –
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Good for Spain – 7% export growth – goes to show that there is no easy and painless solution to raising competitiveness, but it can be done. – “Spanish unit labor costs have fallen, increasing the country’s competitiveness,” said Juan Jose Toribio, a professor at the IESE business school in Madrid and a former head of finance policy at the Economy Ministry. “In a very short period of time, Spain has succeeded in turning a record deficit in its current account into a surplus.”