MADRID, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Spain will create a state-owned sovereign wealth fund to boost sectors including housing and national security, Prime Minister \u200bPedro Sanchez said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The fund, named “Spain Grows”, aims to extend \u200cthe economic stimulus of the European Union’s NextGenerationEU funds – which played a significant role in the \u200ccountry’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic – beyond 2026, when they are set to expire.<\/p>\n
It will initially draw 10.5 billion euros ($12.2 billion) from EU funds and aims to raise 120 billion euros through private debt, Sanchez said, adding more details \u2060would be unveiled next week.<\/p>\n
The \u200cfund will prioritise investments in housing, renewable energy, digitalisation, AI, reindustralisation, infrastructure, water, health, the circular economy and security, Sanchez \u200dsaid.<\/p>\n
“This fund will not only be an exercise in national sovereignty but also proof that there is another way of doing things amid a narrative that questions diversity, equality \u200bor the commitment to sustainability,” Sanchez said.<\/p>\n
He added that the investments would \u200cnot only benefit large urban centres but also those places which industrialisation had bypassed.<\/p>\n
Spain has been one of the main recipients of EU pandemic recovery funds and was allocated about 160 billion euros – roughly half in grants and half in loans.<\/p>\n
The country has put out tenders for 86.6 billion euros, assigned \u206079.8 billion euros and paid out 62.9 \u200bbillion euros, according to the latest figures from \u200bthe economy ministry released in mid-December. It has also requested 22.8 billion euros in loans.<\/p>\n
It renounced around 66 billion euros in \u200dloans in December, \u2060a decision it attributed to its strong standing on capital markets enabling it to raise funds independently.<\/p>\n
However, European Commission official Daniel Calleja said at \u2060an event in Madrid the move was also due to its failure to implement some \u200cof the necessary reforms.<\/p>\n
($1 = 0.8613 euros)<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Writing by \u200cDavid Latona; Editing by Charlie Devereux)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Spain will create a state-owned sovereign wealth fund to boost sectors including housing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,18298,5338,22618,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-698230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-national-security","13":"tag-pedro-sanchez","14":"tag-sovereign-wealth-fund","15":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115900609337136228","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}