I shall therefore refer solely to the State and Social Security budgets. The draft State budget for 2014 is set against a macroeconomic background in which real GDP is forecast to grow by 0.7%. This macroeconomic scenario, whose central forecast is export growth above 6%, is prudent and in keeping with the forecasts of most national and international agencies. It outlines a gradual recovery in activity and employment in a setting in which the ongoing budgetary adjustment and the deleveraging of households and firms will continue, and in which the competitiveness regained in 2012 and 2013 will not be lost. In step with our European commitments, an overall general government budget deficit target, in National Accounts terms, has been set at 5.8% of GDP, against the figure of 6.5% forecast for 2013. In terms of the different agents, a National Accounts deficit target of 3.7% of GDP has been set for central government, against 3.8% in 2013, and in the case of the social security system and the regional governments the figures mark an improvement of 0.3 pp of GDP, taking the respective deficits to 1.1% and 1%. Local governments should maintain in 2014 the balanced budget already forecast for 2013. As in previous years, three expenditure items – the public debt interest burden, pensions and unemployment benefits – will continue to condition budgetary programming.
Luis M Linde: Overview of the Spanish economy against the background of the euro crisis Testimony by Mr Luis M Linde, Governor of the Bank of Spain, before the Parliamentary Budget Committee in connection with the draft State Budget for 2014, Madrid, 4 October 2013. *  *  *  My first appearance as Governor of the Banco de España before this Committee was last year, amid a very difficult situation for the Spanish economy and a serious euro crisis. Since then, fortunately, the situation has improved and the most serious uncertainties surrounding the future of the common currency have been dispelled. Allow me to begin by stressing the importance that strengthening the Economic and Monetary Union and Spain's participation in it has for our economy and for the well-being of Spanish society. The difficulties we are facing should not mask the benefits the Spanish economy has reaped from its participation in the European project and in its most significant institution in terms of integration, namely monetary union. It is worth citing some figures. In the 1986–1990 period, Spanish per capita GDP stood at 78% of the average of the countries then comprising the European Union. In the 2007–2012 period, despite the severity of the crisis in Spain, the percentage figure relative to the same group of countries, which are the richest in the Union, was at 93%.