Undoubtedly, the monetary policy of the European Central Bank, which has successfully achieved its objective of keeping euro area inflation and price expectations under control, has had a sharply expansionary effect on the Spanish economy. Indeed, lower interest rates have facilitated the growth of corporate and household debt and boosted spending and activity. But this cannot be identified as the sole cause behind our growth, and nor does it suffice to explain our better performance, since other southern European countries have also seen their financial costs substantially cut and yet have not recorded comparable growth. Nor can there be many doubts about the favourable influence that the fiscal policies pursued since 1994 have had on economic agents' confidence. With the help of European funds, these policies have enabled the budget deficit to be reduced to the extent that, in the past two years, we have run a surplus. The beneficial effects of fiscal consolidation have been reinforced by the fact that the gradual elimination of the budget deficit has occurred without hardly increasing public spending relative to GDP. Among the causes of the boom, we should also acknowledge the currency devaluations in the early 90s. These took place as a result of the turbulence then prevailing and led to a peseta-euro conversion rate that placed us in a very favourable starting position for the competitiveness of the Spanish economy.
The Budgetary Stability laws have taken this essential change in the structure of the State into account when establishing the budgetary discipline rules. And to date the stability objective has been reasonably met. But this is an area where we cannot lower our guard. As I have said, one of the advantages behind Spain's growth differential when compared with other European countries is the fact that our public spending/GDP ratio is below 40%, while in other countries it is close to or exceeds 50%. The need to maintain this comparative advantage must be clear. And this means that when public demands for education and health care exert pressure on territorial governments, especially at times when the growth of revenue is not as high as it currently is, it will be necessary for increases in education spending, which are so important for growth, to be offset by cuts in spending intended for other less priority areas. As regards health care, it should be recalled that there is extensive potential for improving management, potential which we must harness. It is important to bear in mind the experiences of other European countries that opted for a model of increasing public spending on health but which, nevertheless, did not attain the desired results. Decentralisation has accounted for much of our strength in recent decades and growth in the coming years will depend greatly on which direction we take. Employers, for instance, have recently issued a warning about the potential impact of decentralisation on certain regulatory aspects affecting market integration.