While Spain’s public debt continues to increase, now accounting for 99% of GDP (1,075 billion euros), private sector debt continues to fall, and stood at 131.2% of GDP in the third quarter of 2019, a level below 133% – the European procedure for macroeconomic imbalances – for the first time since 2003.
This means that private sector debt has fallen by 74% of GDP since the peak of 2010. According to Bank of Spain data, bank debt of Spanish families amounted to 703,706 million euros at the end of 2019, a fall of 0.2% compared to the end of 2018. 70% of this debt (518 billion) corresponds to mortgage loans.
In contrast, the debt of Spanish companies rose by 0.8% in 2019, to 892,000 million euros, breaking the downward trend of previous years.
Nevertheless, the Spanish economy’s borrowing capacity was reflected in a current account surplus of 2.1% of GDP at the end of September.
