Spain gets serious with budget plan, mixed U.S. economic data
Spain gets serious with budget plan, mixed U.S. economic data
Today, Spain unveiled its new budget plan — imposing new spending cuts and austerity measures.
“It’s an amibtious budget. It includes almost $23 billion cuts… The goal is to achieve a 4.5 percent of GDP deficit next year. They are very serious,” said Adolfo Laurenti, deputy chief economist for Mesirow Financial in Chicago.
But will the new Spanish budget be enough to satisfy the demands from the nation’s European partners?
“They are taking a lot of pains — at least to the pay of public workers, cutting spending, delaying pensions.” said Laurenti. “The people in the streets in Madrid show that the pain is real. We should take them seriously.”
Meanwhile, in the U.S., jobless claims are way down. Durable goods orders for August are way down. And last quarter’s GDP’s been revised down. What’s it all add up to?
“It’s a mix. It shows that this is an economy that is still struggling. We have not regained momentum,” said Laurenti. “It’s still a mixed economy. We are still facing some struggles, hopefully things will get better soon. But it’s not in the data yet.”
Click play on the audio player above to listen to the full interview.
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