I take office after Alfonso Prat-Gay’s term, during which there were major developments in financial and monetary stabilization. But as you all know, I aim at creating and developing new challenges. My mandate for the next six years is quite simple, and I hope to have accomplished the following goals when I hand over the position to my successor on September 23, 2010.
If we will want to achieve these targets, it will also be necessary to increase efficiency and to markedly increase civilian expenditure, and thus, beyond the use of resources that open up from reducing the interest burden on government debt, and in order not roll over the burden of this increase on to future generations, there will be no alternative to increasing tax revenues, though canceling tax exemptions that are not justified economically, and/or to increasing tax rates.