The president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), Antonio Garamendi, has referred this Thursday to inflation as “the main enemy” and has asked to “manage it well”, especially in relation to salary increases, to avoid second round effects.
“You have to be very careful with second-round inflation. The fact that we have to assume inflation that comes from outside is already hard, but that we will generate a second inflation as a consequence of adapting to that from outside would make us less competitive,” he said. the president of the employers’ association at the inauguration of Fitur.
Garamendi has pointed out that “not everything is fatal and not everything is going so well”, and although inflation has moderated at the end of 2022, with 5.7%, the underlying one, at 7%, “is worrying”. In addition, to this “we must add” the increase in prices that “drags” since December 2021.
“We have to be very cautious and very rigorous taxes with the expenses that we make, because the State itself could also generate inflation, the own generate inflation”, has raised the president of the businessmen. In addition, he has announced that with the beginning of winter the energy situation in Europe may also become complicated, where there may be a 20% shortage of gas, according to his words.
Garamendi has acknowledged that there will not be supply problems in Spain, although he does not rule out that prices will skyrocket again. As a representative of businessmen, he has expressed his concern about the impact of this possible situation on companies.
Electoral year “sine die”
ELECTION YEAR “SINE DIE”
The president of the CEOE recalled that the employers presented to the Government a proposal to increase the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) of 4% by 2023. In the document that the businessmen sent to the Executive, they also asked to analyze the situation of the field, a sector that it is “very drowned”, and the indexation of public contracts in the part that affects companies. Garamendi has insisted that the employers are in favor of raising the SMI, but has asked that the approaches not be mixed in a “sine die” electoral year.
“The SMI is not social dialogue. What the law itself establishes is that it is an attribution of the Government, after consulting the social agents. It is not an issue in which we have to be sitting at the social dialogue table,” he explained. the president of the employers’ association, referring to article 27 of the Workers’ Statute.
Yolanda Diaz, about the companies that “are getting rich” with the rise in prices, specifically food.
The president of the CEOE has avoided “entering into the populism of words” and has called on the Government to speak “more seriously”, because it is “a mistake to launch those messages”. As a representative of employers, he has defended that companies are also facing a rise in costs “in a very important way” and has recalled that “they also have to earn money” for jobs.
