The economic perspectives for 2017 are particularly influenced by global political factors. It will be determining to see whether the Trump administration can confirm a pragmatic direction that avoids protectionist temptations which would have a negative impact on the worldwide economy. Negotiations concerning the Brexit plus the French and German elections will also be important, as three very significant events for the future of the European project.
In Spain, actually forming a government has been a very positive step and the challenge now will be to demonstrate our capacity to shape major agreements to carry out the reforms that this country needs. We are optimists and we think that the time is right, within Spain and abroad, for our economy to keep on growing and creating jobs at a reasonable rate.
In the financial sector, we envisage that the demand for credit, within an economic recovery context, will continue evolving positively with double digit growth in new production. In this way, the outstanding balance of credit will tend to stabilise in 2017.
There will also be a rise in the demand for consultancy tied to savings and long term prevision, a segment where, over the last few years, CaixaBank has strengthened its leadership thanks to a model that combines ownership of businesses generating products - VidaCaixa in insurance and pension plans and CaixaBank Asset Management in investment funds - with an excellent distribution network that brings us closer to our customers. Finally, as far as the sector structure is concerned, the lion's share of adjusting the necessary capacity to adapt to a new business reality has already been done over the last few years.
