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Spain ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
The public sector of the postwar Spanish economy was
not
conspicuously large, compared with the corresponding
sectors of
most other West European countries. Much of it came into
existence under the Franco regime. Spain's communication
and
transportation facilities were publicly operated, as was
the case
on most of the rest of the continent. State trading
monopolies
were maintained for petroleum products, tobacco, and some
agricultural products, but most industry other than coal
mining,
iron and steel making, shipbuilding, and aircraft
assembly, was
privately owned. Most of the major financial institutions
were
also privately owned. Yet agriculture, which was largely
in
private hands, was affected by a panoply of subsidies and
marketing controls. Irrigation projects and reforestation
and
land reform programs were also important official
concerns.
The single largest component of the public sector was
the
National Industrial Institute (Instituto Nacional de
Industria--
INI), a government holding company that was primarily,
though not
exclusively, involved in industry
(see National Industrial Institute
, this ch.). In addition to INI, the public
sector
included the Grupo Patrimonio, founded in the late
nineteenth
century. Formally referred to as the Directorate General
for
State Assets (Direccion General del Patrimonio del
Estado--DGPE),
it functioned under the auspices of the Ministry of
Economy,
Finance, and Commerce. In the mid-1980s, there were about
two
dozen companies in the DGPE, operating in a variety of
sectors,
such as communications, finance, transportation,
agriculture, and
textiles. Three companies dominated the group: the
National
Telephone Company of Spain (Compania Telefonica Nacional
de
Espana--CTNE), the tobacco distributor (Tabacalera), and
the
Overseas Trade Bank (Banco Exterior de Espana). Together
they
accounted for the bulk of the employment and the financial
holdings of the group's members. The shares of these
companies
were held directly by the state, rather than indirectly
through a
holding company, as was the case with INI. One of the main
purposes of the DGPE was to channel to the government the
revenues from the sale of certain commodities placed in
the hands
of monopoly distributors, though such monopolies were
coming to
an end as a result of Spain's entry into the EC. The DGPE
had
also taken an active role in restructuring the textile
industry.
Data as of December 1988
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