Luis de Guindos advierte que "si Europa no se integra más rápido, caerá en la irrelevancia"

The Vice President of the European Central Bank, Luis de Guindos, spoke on the radio program "La Brújula" to analyze the current geopolitical and macroeconomic landscape as his term draws to a close. #pp #europe https://www.ondacero.es/programas/la-... The Vice President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Luis de Guindos, appeared on "La Brújula" this Thursday to warn, among other things, about the consequences of the crisis in the Middle East. He described it as "a global shock" with a direct impact on inflation and growth in the eurozone. A global shock that slows growth and raises inflation Luis de Guindos has assessed the situation in the Middle East, warning that the conflict completely alters the ECB's forecasts: "The conflict in Iran is what economists call a supply shock, but also one of a global nature, and this will logically raise inflation and reduce economic growth." He indicated that this combination "is the worst possible for a central bank." The former minister also clarified that the recovery from this energy shock will not be immediate because "infrastructure has been damaged," which has generated a "situation of enormous uncertainty." The weight of immigration on GDP Regarding the evolution of the Spanish economy compared to the European average, De Guindos revealed internal calculations from Frankfurt: "We believe that more than 60% of economic growth is due to population growth." Therefore, if we removed this, "Spain's growth would be practically very close to the European average." Despite describing immigration as "essential for Spain," De Guindos has been highly critical of the mass regularization processes: "It would have been much better to have a continuous procedure," he stated. Spain's economic image after the political scandals Taking stock of the current corruption cases and their impact abroad, the economist put the situation into perspective by comparing it to the economic legacy that Mariano Rajoy's government inherited at the end of 2011. "When we came in, Rajoy's government had entered a new, very deep recession; the unemployment rate had risen above 25%, the public deficit had climbed above 9%, and when you face that situation, in which Spain was on the verge of a bailout, well…," he noted. The Rise of Euroscepticism The former minister has criticized the interventionism of national governments in the financial sector and the growth of Eurosceptic forces within the European Parliament itself: "A third of the members of the European Parliament are opposed to a process of European integration." For De Guindos, the key lies in the fact that "if Europe does not want to become irrelevant, it is essential that the European integration process move forward and accelerate," which is why he proposes that "the only alternative is for us all to go together, because going separately will make us all irrelevant."