De Guindos urges Spain to resolve the rental “bottleneck” and invest in social services
The vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Luis de Guindos, has identified the increase in housing prices as “one of the main difficulties” for the Spanish economy and has urged to solve the rental “bottleneck” and invest in social services so that the country can grow in terms of per capita income and wealth. The number ‘two’ of the issuer has launched this message within the framework of the XXIV Congress that the Spanish Confederation of Directors and Executives (CEDE) is holding this Thursday in Zaragoza under the motto Europe: from diagnosis to action.
The former Minister of Economy has stressed that although the construction of new housing takes much longer, there would be room for more short-term action on the rental market, where the strong increase in demand is converging with a regulation that “restricts” the supply of rental housing and is producing this increase in prices, which also occurs in other European countries and which prevents greater mobility in the labor market.
“I think that an effort should be made there. For me it is the number one priority,” said De Guindos, who has also called for increasing investment in social services, given that the increase in the population also has effects on demand and thus populist and fragmentation approaches would be avoided. The increase in migratory flows must be accompanied by an increase in resources in this area.
“If we are able to solve this bottleneck and the issue of social services, I am convinced that Spain will continue to grow not only from the point of view of the Gross Domestic Product, but even from the point of view of the Gross Domestic Product per capita more than the euro zone,” he concluded.
