workers. 4 i would now like to put forward some general principles which, i believe, should help to define it. first, this incomes agreement should involve distributing among firms and workers the diminished income in the national economy vis - a - vis the rest of the world that the recent cost increases entail. i must insist on this point again : the aim is to distribute costs. all the actors involved must sustain a loss. workers will not be able to maintain their purchasing power in the short term, nor will firms be able to maintain their profit margins. were workers to bear the full brunt of the adjustment, in the medium term firms would also suffer the consequences in the form of a sharp drop in demand. conversely, if in the current situation we were to place the full burden of the adjustment on firms, many of them would be forced to close and many others would experience significant losses in competitiveness that would affect their future investment capacity. all of this would ultimately undermine job creation and our citizens ’ well - being. indeed, the latest information available suggests that this sharing of costs between workers and firms is already taking place. on the workers ’ side, they are undoubtedly losing purchasing power. indeed, the collective bargaining agreements registered in spain in january and february this year reveal that wage settlements have reacted moderately to the high inflation environment for the time being. specifically, in february the wage increase agreed for 2022 rose to 2. 3 % ( from the 1. 5 % wage settlement for 2021 ), a percentage clearly below the inflation rates observed in recent months and those expected for this year as a whole. when assessing these figures, it should be borne in mind that the collective bargaining system is highly inertial. the above figures basically reflect the outcome of multiyear collective bargaining agreements over the last two years in an inflationary environment that is very different from today ’ s. specifically, the figures for 2022 only include 19 agreements signed this year with a negotiated wage increase of 2. 6 %, affecting less than 15, 000 workers. therefore, they cannot be considered to offer a true picture of the state of collective bargaining in the early stages of this year. as regards businesses, various pieces of information show that in recent months they have not been fully passing the recent increase in their costs ( basically the cost of their energy inputs, but also of other inputs ) through to the prices of their products. in this respect, whether as a result of competitive pressures or demand weakness, profit margins appear

in risk assessment and the sharp reduction in international financing flows that the international financial crisis has entailed have further dampened the supply side, likewise contributing to slowing credit. as an overall result of both forces, the latest figures show year - on - year growth rates of financing to spanish households and firms of around 10 % and 7 %, respectively. analysed from a shorter time perspective, the expansion of credit proves somewhat more moderate, although it is not significantly removed from nominal gdp growth. as might be expected in the current situation, characterised by greater uncertainty and risk aversion, new loans are being granted under more onerous conditions than in the past, which include lower loan - tovalue ratios and shorter maturities. the trajectory followed by credit in spain to august may be said to be behaving in a manner consistent with the process of adjustment the spanish economy is undergoing and with the prevailing global conditions, which entail higher financial costs, heightened risk aversion and serious difficulties in obtaining funds on international financial markets. from the standpoint of financial stability, spanish banks have demonstrated greater resilience than their counterparts in many other countries. but as i have previously stated, there is no room for complacency here, since the challenges ahead are considerable. a crisis such as that currently rocking worldwide financial markets can hardly be neutral for those who depend on such markets to a relatively greater extent. and nor can the fact that a sizeable portion of the spanish financial system ’ s financing flows is tied in one way or another to the real estate sector be ignored either. however, for numerous reasons, including most notably the quality of our regulation and supervision, spanish banks have not been involved either in the generation, marketing or acquisition of the toxic financial products that are inflicting such harm on the international financial system. their levels of efficiency, profitability and solvency have placed them, moreover, in a position of relative strength to withstand this crisis. accordingly, and in the light of the events currently unfolding daily in the international financial system, i wish to make a call in my capacity as governor of the banco de espana for calm, and to reiterate my confidence in the spanish financial system, which is well managed, regulated and supervised. i can assure you that at present there is no threat to spanish depositors'savings. all these considerations on the international financial crisis add great uncertainty to the outlook for growth in the spanish economy. the information available points to practically