CaixaBank warns of political instability after Sánchez's risk to resign and requires consensus | EUROtoday

That the financial system resists past the political ups and downs doesn’t imply that there isn’t a concern within the monetary sector. The CEO of CaixaBank, Gonzalo Gortzar, offered this Tuesday the outcomes of the entity equivalent to the primary quarter of this yr, wherein it closed with a web revenue of 1,005 million, 17.5% greater than in the identical interval of 2023, and regardless of having paid and 493 million for the banking tax, 32% extra. But, after the specter of resignation of the President of the Government, Gortzar has not been in a position to cease warning concerning the political instability that stops Spain from endeavor the foremost pending reforms. Like that of the housing market, an issue that may worsen, as he has lamented.

Asked concerning the 5 days of reflection that Pedro Sánchez took to meditate on his continuity, leaving the complete nation in suspense, Gortzar was blunt: “The events have had no impact on the economy. That is the truth.” In reality, he has highlighted that the expansion of the financial system within the first quarter is “very good”, which makes him assume that the forecast that the GDP develop by 1.9% in 2024 “falls short.”

Now, the CEO of CaixaBank has identified that “the political vision of Spain at this moment, and for some time now, is somewhat difficult.” Gortzar has referred to the “coalition government that needs the support of other parties.” “We are in a situation of less stability than we would like”, he said. Also requested if he’s additionally involved about Sánchez's accusation to judges and the media, Gortzar has assured that “Freedom of the press and judicial independence are key to our democracy”.

This situation, in his opinion, makes it virtually not possible to handle fiscal consolidation within the medium and long run to cut back the deficit and debt figures, which is why he has requested the Government and the opposition for duty to achieve an settlement on this regard. “Common sense tells us that it must be by a large majority,” he mentioned. “It would be ideal to have great consensus to undertake reforms that allow us to accelerate the growth of the economy.”

And right here he has referred to 2 particular points that stay pending. The first has to do with the housing market reform. According to Gortzar, “we are not building enough housing and we are facing a growing social problem.” In his opinion, the issue is none aside from an imbalance between provide (110,000 newly constructed properties) and demand (250,000 new properties), which is able to trigger “the imbalance to increase” over time.

The origin of the issue have to be present in “well-intentioned” however “counterproductive” laws, to the extent that it scares away traders prepared to develop housing. “We must do a serious analysis of how we put more housing supply on the market, how we give security to investors.” His recipe, “clear rules.”

The second challenge has to do with enhancing productiveness, a subject that has been used to as soon as once more query the impression of financial institution tax: “Penalizing large companies is not logical because they tend to be twice as productive as small ones.” And he has given for instance the banking tax that’s on the way in which to being prolonged: “It is not justified by exaggerated profitability,” he repeated, because the banking tax is decrease than that of the Ibex-35 (17%). In the case of CaixaBank, it was 13.4% on this first quarter, with out but exceeding the 15.2% that was reached between 2007 and 2009.

Pending the judicial ruling on this tax, Gortzar has requested the Government for a brand new design to be maintained over time, as a result of right this moment “it is not universal, because it taxes some entities and not others, it is not deductible and it continues to refer to income and not to profits.” The modifications, he has mentioned, ought to go alongside these traces.

On the opposite hand, Gortzar needed to place an finish to hypothesis a couple of attainable exit plan from the entity. Telephone. As of right this moment, CaixaBank's participation is the bottom because it entered Telefónica's capital. The monetary establishment just lately introduced a discount in its participation to 2.51%. Despite this, Gortzar has praised the “shareholding and strategic relationship” between CaixaBank and Telefónica. “We are going to continue working to develop these alliances,” he said.