The volatility of key variables for economic agents such as the interest rate, inflation or the exchange rate has diminished. But growth has continued to be unbalanced in those aspects I have already mentioned, such as household and corporate debt, and continuing price and cost differentials. At issue here are imbalances posing risks to growth sustainability within an area with very high stability requirements by Spanish standards. Yet while such risks are very important for the Spanish economy, the biggest risk of all is complacency. It is vital to maintain the attitude of non-complacency which has driven economic agents, governments and other players who have sustained the Spanish dynamism of recent decades. A change in attitude which were to convert the satisfaction with the current situation into an excuse to detain the drive to innovate and reform would, sooner or later, bring the ongoing process to a halt. We must continue striving to discover how we can improve the performance of our institutions and companies. This is the main idea I wish to share with you today: let us not fall into complacency. However much we have progressed, let us not stop. There are examples of developed countries which, having achieved very favourable income and wealth levels, lost their reforming dynamism and, as a result, entered lasting situations of slackness and sluggishness with serious employment problems and a deterioration in confidence at all levels. It is therefore important to identify the specific policies we should foster in the future.
Indeed, on these results, Spanish GDP is now ranked seventh among the industrialised countries, in front of Canada and only behind the United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Comparison with these seven countries can be taken as a basis to give us an idea of our strengths and weaknesses. In terms of job creation, Spain was once again prominent in 2006, with a growth rate of 3.56%. That ranks us first among the big seven, and if we compare absolute figures (almost 700,000 jobs), no other country in the developed world has created so much employment, with the sole exception of the United States. Turning to public finances, Spain's end-year surplus also compares very favourably with the deficits posted in the other main developed countries. Yet this should not hide the fact that we also ranked first in two unfavourable indicators. True, yearend inflation in Spain was 2.7%, below the figure of 3.7% the previous year and, of course, far below the level of 4% that marked the end of some of the high-growth years earlier this decade. But compared with the other seven major industrialised countries, Spain had the highest inflation in 2006. And likewise for the current account deficit. Our deficit in 2006 will no doubt be close to 8% of GDP, the highest figure among the big economies. The Spanish economy has performed well against the backdrop of an expanding world economy and, most importantly for us, the firming of the recovery in the euro area.