The ‘number two’ of the European Central Bank (ECB), Luis de Guindos, has announced this Monday that capping the interest rates that apply to variable mortgages as proposed by United We can affect the granting of credit to the lowest incomes. Setting interest limits on mortgage payments seems to be a “socially appropriate” message, De Guindos admitted in an interview with Onda Cero, although he warned that banks could respond to this limit by “not granting mortgages to most vulnerable parts of society.
In general terms and without referring specifically to the situation in Spain, the vice president of the ECB has insisted that the measures to alleviate the effects of inflation “have to be selective” and not generalized, as they have also shown on Monday the entity’s economists in an article published by the issuer. In addition, he has insisted on “avoiding a price-wage spiral”, although this does not imply “that wages do not increase”, but rather that they do not go “beyond what is reasonable”.
De Guindos has also removed the possibility of a recession in the European Union, since now everything points to “a slightly positive growth rate” in the first quarter of the year, although with “very high” inflation. This consideration coincides with the forecasts published this Monday by the European Commission, which show how the European Union and the Eurozone have so far avoided recession and face the coming months, in principle, with better prospects.
The Spanish economy will slow down this year
After emphasizing that the ECB does not carry out country projections, De Guindos pointed out that the normalization process of the Spanish economy, which he hopes will register “a slowdown” this year, has been making itself felt since last summer, including job creation . “2023 will be a complex year for the euro area as a whole”, summed up the vice-president of the ECB, although he stressed that in the last two months the perception of the evolution of the economy has changed.
“The European Commission and the ECB are somewhat more positive”, has signed the former Minister of Economy in the Government of Mariano Rajoy. In fact, Brussels has raised its calculation for Spanish GDP this Monday to 1.4% this year, four tenths above the estimate published in autumn, although this remains below the 2.1% calculated by the Spanish executive.
