Waiting for the negotiations to form a new government to be successful, the businessmen are clear about their demands and claims for the next cabinet and the main ones go through reducing public debt, lowering labor costs faced by companies and pursuing harder Tax fraud In that order. In addition, seven out of ten consider that the Spanish economy is stagnant or slowing down smoothly to moderately.

These are two of the conclusions drawn from the latest wave of the International Business Report (IBR) prepared by the consultant Grant Thornton among a sample of 400 executives from our country , who were asked, prior to the elections of 10 November, what they expected from the new Executive and how they saw the economic situation.

On the latter, 31.2% would say that the country's economy is stagnating, compared to 22% who think it is slowing down smoothly and 16.6% who believe that it is doing so moderately; Only 23.9% perceive that it is growing smoothly and 6.3% moderately. The truth is that the growth of the Spanish economy has slowed in recent quarters compared to previous years, in line with the slowdown in the economy that has been recorded both at European and global level.

In fact, several organizations have lowered growth estimates for Spain in the coming years. The Bank of Spain cut its forecasts of GDP progress from 2.4% to 2% for this year; from 1.9% to 1.7%, by 2020 and from 1.7% to 1.6% in 2021, motivated by the correction made by the INE and by the economic slowdown. The OECD also did so by lowering its growth forecasts by two tenths for 2019, up to 2%, and three tenths by 2020, up to 1.6%.

The European Commission , for its part, not only modified the growth forecasts for 2019 (from 2.3% to 1.9%), but also focused on other imbalances that may pose a problem for Spain, such as the deficit or public debt . And precisely the latter is, for the managers surveyed, one of the main challenges of the next Government, whatever its sign.

Deficit and public debt

Public debt in Spain stood at 97.8% of GDP in September, far from 95.9% committed to the European Union, according to the latest data from the Bank of Spain.

According to Alejandro Martínez Borrell , president of Grant Thornton, "the main demand of Spanish businessmen is in line with the latest announcements of the European Commission, which point to the existence of macroeconomic imbalances in Spain, due to our high level of debt public in a context of high unemployment and weak productivity growth. "

After education, the second issue to which entrepreneurs believe that the new government should devote greater efforts is the labor market. Specifically, seven out of ten businessmen show their concern for the current labor framework and demand measures from the Government during the next term.

Tax incentives

They are also worried about taxation . 20% believe that, among the first measures that the next Executive should take, is the reduction of corporate taxes. In addition, they demand more tax incentives to facilitate the internationalization of Spanish firms, something that contrasts with some of the proposals that PSOE and Unidos Podemos shuffle in the business field.

Various business organizations have warned of the consequences of proposals such as raising the Corporate Tax and have asked for "prudence" when implementing the changes.

"We have proposed that in the things of the economy, in the things of eating, we have a lot of caution and work seriously, and we are moved that we do not worry because it will be done seriously," said Antonio Garamendi, president of CEOE, last week after a conversation with the president of the acting government.

Political stability in relation to the territorial issue is also shown as one of the issues to which Spanish businessmen attach greater importance. More than 60% of respondents ask for an urgent solution to an uncertainty that is detrimental to the attraction of investments and the generation of wealth.

Asked about which major issues in the international context should concern the Government the most, entrepreneurs place digital transformation first (77%), Brexit second (63%), and third, the United States trade war and China (62%).

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