PM acknowledges deficit "difficulties"

Wednesday, 01 February 2012 10:33

Written by Editor

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was overheard telling European leaders on Monday that Spain is going to have a difficult time meeting its pledge to reduce its budget deficit to 4.4 percent of GDP by the end of this year. Rajoy told European Commission President José Manuel Barroso: “We're going to present a new macroeconomic framework  – the current one says that we'll have GDP growth of 2.3 percent this year but it is evident that it won't end up like this." Later, Rajoy was overheard complaining to Finnish Prime Minister Jyki Katainen near an open microphone with television cameras rolling that "the labour reform is going to earn me a general strike". He also told Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte: "It is always hard, but now it is going to get even harder." He said that what it boiled down to was that “the Socialists have left us a very complicated inheritance, with a deficit of more than eight percent”, concluding that “the forecast for growth this year is very bad”.