Oldal 1 [1]
XSAeN9 14 for September 1952.
IMPRESSIONS FROM SPAIN.
Even a short number of mohths make now a big difrerence
in appreciating the situation in Spain. The progress of that coun=
try in the last two years is in its way as spectawular as the res
covery of Gemmenye And in the last few months it has been even
more striking, since these saw the end of all rationing.
With the beginning of the summer, the rationing of
petrol and of coffee, es well us of suger have been abolished.
here is nothing more rationed in Spain, and the rationing servi¬
ces are rapidly liquidated. Since the market has become free,
except for price controls on the most important goods of public
consume of the lower classes, it is interesting to mention that
prices in general have scarcely risen, While they certainly are
not low for those whose wages are paid in Pesetas, they still are
kept at a bearable level and are markedly low as compared with the
world wide price tendencies. Therefore the prophets of gloomy,
especially in the Phalengist groups, who always predicted that
the end of the economic controls would mean rising prices, ine
creased inflation and hardships for the poor classes were proven
wronge In fact the value of the Peseta has been kept high enough,
that the Spanish Governement had to help secretly in order to
Heep the Peseta from rising to much on the free markets of the
world, especially Tangiers.
While thus the stability of the price structure was ming
tained, the economic activity of the country has risen in a most
spectacular manner. This is not due primarily to American Dollargse
In fact the Americen help is extremely slow in caming. Negociations
are @ragging one The recovery is due primarily to the inner strength
of the Spanish economy, helped by the abundance of water, good.
crops and the investment policy in capital goods carried out in
the face of almost insurmountable difficulties by the governefent
during the lean years of the UN blockade of the countrye The tres
mendous sacrifices of that time are now paying ample dividends.
Another factor furthermore is the flow of foreigny European and
Letin American capital to Spain. This capital comes in the expec=
tation to be at the origins of a large economic expansion. Though
currency restrictions are still imposed, this capital is encou=
raged by the facet, that as soon as feusabie the Bank of Spain is
relaxing one control after the other. Thus, foreign capital cal=
culates; the greater the economic activity, the sooner the exchange
will be set free. This idea corresponds to the basic philosophy of
60.