The president of the Economic and Social Council (CES), Antón Costas, has called on the Congress of Deputies to reach a broad agreement on urban land to ensure that housing ceases to be the ‘black hole’ that absorbs all the improvements in the economy.
This is the main message that Costas conveyed during his appearance before the Lower House's Economy Committee, where he presented the most important conclusions of the CES report on the socio-economic and labour situation in Spain in 2024.
The report highlights that 2024 was a good year for economic development and the labour market. Antón Costas also pointed out that economic growth was ‘healthier and more balanced’ than in previous cycles of economic expansion.
As the CES president explained, while in other periods growth phases in Spain were more ‘manic’ or ‘euphoric’, accompanied by financial, fiscal or balance of payments imbalances and inflationary pressures, growth in 2024 came with a reduction in these imbalances.
An example of this behaviour is the performance of the balance of payments, with Spain being ‘practically the only Western economy’ to have run a surplus for almost two decades.
Improvements are not reflected in living conditions
However, Antón Costas pointed out that these improvements in the economy and employment are not translating into improved prosperity in people's lives and there is no general improvement in living conditions.
The head of the organisation has indicated that although there has been progress, it is ‘not enough’ for society as a whole. ‘It is as if the bridge between economic growth and the living conditions of the population as a whole has been broken or at least damaged,’ Costas reflected.
The president of the CES placed particular emphasis on child poverty, going so far as to say that he could find ‘no explanation’ or “justification” for the fact that Spain is both the European Union country with the highest rate of child poverty and the highest rate of economic growth. ‘How can we admit and accept this rate of child poverty? I can find no explanation and we need to find an answer to this,’ he added.
Antón Costas went on to point out that tools such as the Minimum Living Income (IMV) and childcare benefits are positive, but are not fully contributing to reducing child poverty, mainly because a large proportion of Spanish households that are eligible for these benefits do not claim them.
In this regard, Costas recalled that in another report, the CES defends the need to introduce a universal benefit for children between the ages of zero and three, especially to help younger families with greater difficulties.
Broad agreement on land
After these reflections, the president of the CES emphasised the fact that housing explains much of the breakdown in the link between the macroeconomy and housing conditions.
Costas said that housing has become a ‘black hole’ that absorbs the income improvements brought about by the economy and employment, as well as the income improvements brought about by social benefits.
For this reason, the president of the institution has asked Congress for a ‘broad agreement’ on land, as it will be ‘difficult’ to solve the housing problem if legislation allows entire urban development processes to be overturned on purely formal grounds.
On the other hand, Antón Costas also made a point in his speech to say that for three years now, the institutions that produce macroeconomic forecasts ‘have been systematically wrong’.
For this reason, Costas stressed that on some occasions the difference between the forecast and the result has been in the order of one point of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). "When a surprise is 0.1 or 0.2 of GDP, it is logical. But when those surprises are in the order of 1% of GDP, there must be some variable that we are missing in conventional macroeconomic models," he said.
One of those variables, he says, may be the capacity for social dialogue, which the CES president considers an ‘element of confidence’ for economic actors that can contribute to economic growth.
Source: Idealista
Europa Press
17 June 2025, 16:49