Spain unveils economic recovery plan amid pandemic
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Spain’s prime minister unveiled a major plan Wednesday to boost his country out of recession by spending 140 billion euros ($162 billion) of European Union aid to reshape the economy, with the aim of creating 800,000 jobs over the next three years.
The program is a response to the sharp downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic and its worldwide disruption of economies. The plan focuses primarily on getting Spain to transition to green energy and a digital economy, which will take up about 70% of the financing.
“We have to turn this heavy blow into an opportunity,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said, referring to the pandemic's far-reaching effects on society and the economy. “This is the challenge of our generation.”
Spain this week became the first EU country to surpass 835,000 coronavirus infections, with 32,562 people in Spain confirmed to have died from COVID-19. The capital, Madrid, is experiencing Europe's worst second wave of infections.
Spain is the latest EU country to say how it intends to use the bloc’s 750-billion-euro coronavirus recovery fund, approved last July and designed to help the world’s biggest trading bloc exit its deepest-ever recession.
France last month unveiled a 100 billion-euro ($116 billion) plan called “France Reboot,” that includes 40 billion euros ($46 billion) from the EU recovery plan.
Germany has a 130 billion euro stimulus package for 2020 and 2021, to be spent on infrastructure, digitalization and green energy projects such as electric vehicles. Italy is sketching a roadmap along similar lines to Spain, dubbing it #nextgenerationitalia.
Greece, after an anticipated economic contraction of 8.2% this year, expects to rebound with 7.5% growth next year. The Greek economy is set to...
