Escrivá says that Díaz's support for the union protest against CEOE "does not torpedo" social dialogue

Ensures that a SMI equivalent to 60% of the average salary is already a "very demanding" level

MADRID, 31 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, stated this Wednesday that the support of the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, for the mobilizations announced by the unions against the CEOE to raise wages in Spain "does not torpedo" tripartite social dialogue.

"Nothing is torpedoed. This Government and all the ministers who have to interact with the unions, also Vice President Díaz, have a history of social dialogue and in agreement with the social agents like never before in history and this is going to continue. being so", the minister defended in statements to La Sexta collected by Europa Press.

Escrivá has also denied that the Government has celebrated the advance inflation data for August (10.4%) and has pointed out that, for the Government, the CPI data are "hugely worrying", both in Spain and in Europe. "We are with the maximum tension in the good sense of the word to try to reverse this situation," he stressed.

Asked if the minimum interprofessional salary (SMI) should rise in line with inflation, the minister has limited himself to pointing out that it has to rise until it fulfills the commitment to place it in 2023 at 60% of the average salary, a percentage that he already considers "very demanding".

It will be the Committee of Experts of the SMI, which meets this Friday to start the work, who will decide what is the salary reference to take into account to fulfill that commitment, Escrivá pointed out.

"Depending on what wages rise in Spain in the current situation, it will be necessary to keep pace with the rise in the SMI to reach that level, already very demanding, of 60% of the average salary," he indicated.

As for whether the cost of revaluing pensions with a CPI at high levels can be assumed, the minister has assured that this cost can be absorbed "absolutely" given the good evolution of the Social Security accounts, which this year will cut its deficit to 0.5% of GDP, compared to 0.9% in 2021.

On the other hand, the minister believes that the rise in interest rates that the central banks are applying to tackle inflation will have no effect on employment, since it is based on conditions and levels that are "so lax" that they will not produce a cost credit cash "particularly onerous".

"I don't have the feeling that it will be a difficult situation (...) People who have loans will have to pay a little more but in Spain there are many people who have deposits, who will be paid a little more", he pointed out.

Escrivá has ruled out that Spain is going to start the new course with job destruction, since the data for the month of August are "quite reasonable".

Likewise, and despite the current complex environment, the minister explained that the central scenario in which the Spanish economy is moving points to a slowdown in activity and not to a recession, which would form part of a "low probability" scenario, which could occur in a situation of effective energy restriction in some European countries.