Rajoy makes optimistic State of the Nation address

PRIME MINISTER Mariano Rajoy used his final State of the Nation address this Tuesday (February 24) to announce that more than half a million jobs could be created in Spain in 2015, if “we don’t fall foul of any blunders.”

Mr Rajoy said that he would use the final part of his term of office before the general elections to speed up growth and introduce tax breaks to encourage more permanent contracts.

The Prime Minister announced that the next challenge would be to create three million new jobs in Spain. “That must be our objective, because it is obtainable if we don’t fall foul of any blunders,” he told Congress.

“If we are able to maintain the pace of growth, and we fulfil forecasts that we can grow well above two per cent a year, we might well be able to say we have a million net jobs within reach between last year and this year.

“If we don’t let things go astray, we can aspire to create over half a million jobs every year. Three million jobs to protect ourselves from eventualities and to continue growing in terms of standard of living and security.”

He predicted that the Spanish economy would grow by 2.4 per cent this year, highlighting an increase in consumer spending, improved exports and favourable prices.

“The state of the nation is that of a nation that has woken up from a nightmare, that has bailed itself out, recovered prestige, is attractive to investors, has reorganised how it works and is growing in terms of consumption and investment,” said Mr Rajoy.