Balearics won't be the first to emerge from crisis

Speaking in Palma at the presentation of an economic report on the Balearics for the past decade, Riera explained that it can be seen that in the last ten years, the region has not been a leader in growth either in Spain or at a European Union level.

Riera said that there were other reasons for his assumption about the Balearics including the fact that the Islands suffer serious “imbalance” when compared to the economic performance of other regions in the country. “The Balearics are in seventh place so far as gross product per capita is concerned,” said the Director “and there are other regions which are superior in terms of wealth, business and scientific innovation, and the way that human resources have been utilised.” He explained that the economic results of the last ten years in the Balearics have been due to what he described as “operational difficulties” in the regional system. He said that resources in the Islands are used inefficiently, that the true potential of the region is far from being reached and this trend has eaten into the well-being of the local population.

Slow recovery
Riera said that proof of what he is saying lies in the fact that productivity in the region has fallen considerably over the past decade.
Both Riera and other colleagues of the CRE which is an organisation backed by the Balearic University and the Sa Nostra banking foundation, judge that the region will emerge slowly from the crisis.

He said that the Islands need to make proper use of what they have rather than accumulating. Specialisation or establishing all-year-round tourism is not the answer. What is needed is nothing less than a “transformation,” Riera claimed. Asked if he thought the present government was capable of making such an economic U-turn, Riera said that everyone had the means to achieve the end.