Oldal 1 [1]
OCR
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 services 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.
