Debt stands at 116%, still above full-year target, squeezed by the 30,000 million injected in aid since March
After months of increase due to massive state spending to deal with the post-war inflationary crisis in Ukraine, public debt took its first breath after the summer. At that time, the debt burden of the administrations amounted to more than 1.5 trillion euros. In October it fell to 1.49 trillion, some 6,600 million euros less than in the previous month, according to data from the Bank of Spain.
In this way, the Spanish public debt registers its second monthly decrease of this 2022. The first was in the first quarter, before the executive launched the first anti-crisis plan, the estimated cost of which for the whole year is around 30,000 million. euros.
In relative terms, that is, if we compare the total government debt with Spain’s wealth (GDP), the government debt is about 116% of GDP. Although public debt-to-GDP has declined in recent months (due to economic growth), it still slightly exceeds the government’s target for the full year (115.2%), in line with what the executive in the declaration of stability. Plan sent to Brussels at the end of April, as well as in the budget plan.
The scenario proposed by the 2022-2025 stability program shows a gradual decrease in the deficit over four years, until the debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 109.7% in 2025.
The fall in debt in October is mainly due to the fall in government debt, breaking the upward trend that had been going on for months due to the need to include an additional spending effort due to the impact of the corona crisis and now of the war in Ukraine after the invasion of Russia.
Compared to the month of October last year, public debt increased by EUR 75,347 million, representing an increase of 5.3%, in a context now marked by the economic impact of the war in Ukraine and the measures taken to alleviate the rise in prices.
In the administrations, public debt fell to 1,321,843 million euros in the tenth month of the year, 0.5% less compared to the previous month and 7% more compared to last year’s data.
For its part, the debt of the Autonomous Communities grew by 0.4% per month and increased slightly by 1.5% year-on-year, reaching EUR 316,127 million in the tenth month of the year.
For their part, local corporations slightly reduced their debt in October by 1.09% compared to the previous month, to EUR 22,038 million, while falling by 1.8% compared to the same month last year.
Finally, the debt of the social security administrations remained almost at the same level as the previous month, at EUR 99.194 million, although it increased by 8% compared to the same month last year due to the loans granted by the State to the General Treasury from social security to finance its budgetary imbalance.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
