The Party’s Over?

The gloom that has descended upon the Spanish economy could be the shroud of potential defeat for Sr. Zapatero at next month’s election. The PSOE has enjoyed the sunshine and sangria of an economic summer for much of its administration; now it faces a winter of cloud and flat cava. It’s rotten timing if you happen to be a socialist politician. Record rises in monthly unemployment, the largest fall in production for some six years, the largest fall in service-sector activity since the end of the last century, inflation at its highest for 12 years and consumer confidence shuffling along the floors of shopping malls like an impecunious bag-woman. It doesn’t get much worse, unless you add in independent forecasts for growth, a percentage point less than that dreamt up by the Government. The credit squeeze has compounded the problems of debt in key sectors such as construction; mortgages have risen along with the costs of utilities and petrol; employment in the tourism sector cannot compensate for the loss of building jobs. And yet none of it should come as a great surprise.

The PSOE may still have a lead in the polls, but the economic indicators are a godsend to the PP, even if the Government can point, with some justification, to the effects of European Central Bank policy and US sub-prime imperialism. The electorate though, seeing deterioration in household budgets, may not be inclined to take such a sympathetic view.

Slowdown in the Spanish economy and the threat of recession hang malevolently over Mallorca’s 2008 tourist season. The “record numbers” of tourists of the past two years were skewed by a significant rise in mainland Spaniards. Perhaps the only good news is for the likes of Alcúdia and Pollensa in that most of these visitors congregate around Palma. The bad news is that Spain is far from alone in its economic woes.


QUIZ
Yesterday – The Doobie Brothers. Today’s title – take away the question mark, could be a number of things but I’m looking for an album by a great ‘80s band.

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