Homeowners at risk of financial insolvency could have their mortgage conditions eased according to an agreement between the Spanish government and the country’s banking sector to be announced Tuesday.
The executive could announce an agreement already on Monday and formally approve the measure on Tuesday during the regular weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers, Economy Minister Nadia Calviño told a press conference after meeting European Commissioner Vice-President Margrethe Vestager Friday in Madrid.
The Spanish executive and the banking sector have been working “constructively” to reach an agreement “soon”, Calviño added.
Although the extraordinary measure was initially intended to ease the financial situation of vulnerable families in the working class, the Spanish left-wing executive last week modified the scope and extended it, in some cases, to middle-class households with a yearly gross income up to €25,200.
Calviño explained that different scenarios are being studied to allow mortgage holders to pay a lower monthly instalment to “flatten the interest rate curve”, and cushion the impact of a high Euribor rate.
Work is underway on two possible alternatives: extending the Code of Good Practices in the banking sector to help “more vulnerable” families, and signing a new protocol with specific measures for the middle class, Calviño told Spanish public broadcast RTVE.
On the decisions that the European Central Bank (ECB) may take in the coming months to combat inflation, Calviño insisted that she hopes it “gets it right” although “it is not an easy task”, as it must “contain inflation without slowing down the European economy”.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
Source: euractiv.com
