Half full or half empty, depending on how you look at the glass. It is the economy of Castilla y León, which projects both lights and shadows, according to the analysis of the third quarter carried out by the Economic Studies Service dependent on the College of Economists. … from Valladolid, Palencia and Zamora (Ecova). And while the data continues to point toward “growth,” the truth is that the “complex geopolitical context” and the difficult times we are going through cannot be ignored. So the regional economy “we are in a period of fragile stability, where unstable growth reigns” in a complicated environment, as the director of Ecova, Juan Carlos de Margarida, warned this Tuesday.
This can already be seen in the fact that this end of the year “is characterized by a slowdown in growth”noted Margarida, who also highlighted the “high financial volatility”, the “increase” of restrictions and the “great political uncertainty”. A cocktail in which, he criticized, it is mixed that on the one hand the public deficit has been reduced “thanks to the increase in income”, but at the same time “we find ourselves faced with a waste of public spending without containment and without political will to go back”. Thus, according to the director of the Observatory, “we must apply 0-based budgets“. That is to say, he explained, by entrusting tasks to political leaders, starting each year “quantifying the needs and projects to be carried out without starting from the expenditures applied or the investments of the previous year”. And thus, he added, “adjust public spending to the real needs of society”.
In terms of public accounts, De Margarida warned that the extension of the budgets of previous years – in the case of the Junta de Castilla y León, it will begin in 2026 with the figures approved for 2024 and extended until 2025, and in the case of the central government, with those validated for 2023, with an Executive and Congress different from the current ones – “faces the impossibility of coping with new public policies” in areas such as health, education or social services. Without forgetting, he added, investments in new infrastructure projects. And to add, recriminated De Margarida, “the inefficiency in the execution of the New Generation Funds, which represents a loss of opportunity, as well as a threat to national and regional economic growth.”
Labor market
As for the labor market, also lime and sand. In Castile and León it presents “a good career”, but employment “depends, to a large extent, foreign labor, which fills jobs in critical sectors of economic activity. And, added the director of EcovaEstudios, SMEs and self-employed workers “are the real generators of jobs and wealth creation” and those who support “the stability of employers”.
Thus, De Margarida concluded: “Castilla y León finds itself facing a cfavorable and uncertain socio-economic situation“. And the fact is that, although it maintains “moderate” growth, an industrial base “more diversified” than other communities and “qualified” human capital, at the same time “it faces uncertainty due to the lack of strategic impetus to face challenges such as depopulation and competitiveness”. Thus, according to economists, “it is urgent” to formulate a “robust” economic plan which includes an adjustment of spending, but also a productive revival so as not to restrict its development.
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