SPAIN’S Economy Minister Nadia Calviño has said that she expects the Council of Ministers to extend on Tuesday some of the anti-crisis measures that are scheduled to expire on June 30.
Speaking to Radio Nacional on Monday, Calviño would not go into specifics ahead of Tuesdays meeting, but insisted that the drop in IVA on basic foods and support for public transport are two of the measures ‘that will be maintained’ if prices are ‘above reasonable’ values.
“We are waiting inflation figures for June which we will not know until the end of the month, but we will get a provisional number on Thursday”, she said.
“The price of food is still high which is why we believe help has to be maintained but always linked to how prices evolve over the coming months,“ Calviño added.
Asked if she was considering extending IVA reductions to meat and fish, the minister responded by saying that fish prices have dropped in the last month.
“What we see is that prices are evolving in a way that makes it convenient to extend the reductions that we are already in place,” said Calviño.
Calviño told Radio Nacional that although the Government has been selective in anti-crisis aid, these measures will have to be ‘increasingly surgical’ and hoped that inflation would continue to fall in coming months so that government support will no longer be required,
From a pure political standpoint, its hard to see any major changes give the high rate of food inflation and the forthcoming general election on July 23.