Spain’s reform efforts praised, but many Spanish disagree
The economic development of Spain is proving that the euro zone was tackling its crisis well, according to the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Tuesday.
"Spain is the best example that we've done a lot of things quite right in Europe," Schaeuble said at a business conference in Berlin, adding that he was optimistic about Spain's future development as long as Madrid stuck to its reform policies.
The country will have a budget deficit of less than 3% next year as mentioned by the Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos.
Spain also gets praises from the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday due to its reform efforts, saying that the country was helping Europe dramatically recover from its crisis.
"The situation on the labour market is still serious, but many new jobs are being created and thus Spain is contributing to Europe pulling itself out of the crisis step by step," Merkel told a news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Berlin.
Even if the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that the economic development of Spain is doing well, many Spanish would surely disagree. Spain's manufacturing growth in August was in line at 53.2, which is a 10-month low.
Just like Greece, Spain was forced to envelop large austerity measures in the wake of its 2008 economic crisis that was brought on by the credit crunch. Spanish unemployment hit 27.2% in 2013 and the economy is just now starting to grow. The said country's budget deficit is going to be less than 3% of GDP next year, down from its crisis peak of 10%.
This is Germany's clear favored method for dealing with the frail Eurozone countries that are in need of help that is, to force them to shoulder the cost of the recovery themselves, no matter what the human cost may be.