deficit target

Spanish economy, Spanish Politics 27th April 2023

Brussels to require adjustments of 0.5 GDP points per year for Spain and countries with high deficits

The reform of fiscal rules proposed by the European Commission will prohibit public spending from growing above GDP in countries with more than 60% debt or 3% deficit, which will have to present consolidation plans four to seven years ahead. Europe already has the new rules of the budgetary game proposed by Brussels on the table. After years of suspending deficit and debt targets to allow EU partners to fight…

Spanish economy, Spanish Politics 17th January 2023

Spain: tax collection rises by 15% but deficit will rise to 4.5% of GDP according to AIReF

The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) estimates that last year closed with growth of 5.3%, which represents an upward revision of 9 tenths of a percentage point; and that in 2023 it will be 1.6%, in this case one tenth of a percentage point more than the previous estimate. The main reason for the revision in 2022 comes from the incorporation of updated national accounting data – which revised…

Spanish economy 6th July 2012

Spain’s interest payments on public debt are lower than in the 1990s

By CaixaBank research team, in Barcelona | Tensions in Europe’s sovereign debt markets have grown again, especially in the so-called peripheral economies. Increasing rumours regarding Greek’s possible exit from the euro area have played a significant part. In Spain, this escalation has been sharpened by further capital requirements for banks and the increasingly widespread doubts as to whether the fiscal deficit targets will be met, particularly after the upward revision…

Markets 13th June 2012

S&P: Spain’s debt to remain under 80pc of GDP even with €100 more billion

LONDON/MADRID | Ratings agency Standard & Poor's had already added an injection of €80 billion to €120 billion of public money into the banking sector when it downgraded Spain last April 26 to BBB+ with negative outlook. The agency stated this week that even using the total amount of €100 billion, the country's debt per GDP ratio would be 76.6 percent in 2014. S&P said there would be no further…

Spanish economy 26th April 2012

Spain’s budget is starting to crack

MADRID | First quarter figures showed a marked deterioration in central government finances. Its gap has grown by ¾ as compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 1.85% in terms of GDP. A most disappointing outcome that undermines firm pledges to slash deficit this year in a substantial way. Claims that more money has been pumped to regional authorities, pensions and unemployment benefits appear as futile excuses. For…

Markets 24th April 2012

Rigid deficit targets only fuel speculative runs

MADRID | The Dutch coalition collapse coupled with the plausible fiscal pact rebuke following the poll outcome in France has severely undermined investors’ confidence. Trust on discipline driven governance in the euro zone is crumbling. Losing in a row two key stalwart bastions of tough budgetary rules has sent shivers to the markets. Further challenges are expected to materialise as the austerity overdose dents popular support for governments at pains to…

Spanish economy 18th April 2012

Pharmaceutical co-payment: Spanish pensioners charged 10%

By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | One more twist in the reform plans introduced by the Spanish government: time is up for the public health system… again. The vice-president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría said in March that “the matter of the [sanitary] co-payment is not on the table of the Cabinet; it is as simple and crystal clear as that.” In Spain, the pensioners did not have to pay for…

Markets 13th April 2012

Madrid bluffing about leaving the euro may backfire

MADRID | Berlin is utterly bewildered, according to official sources, by the clumsy way Madrid is running its current crisis. A high ranking government representative stunned his German counterparts by openly declaring that Spain would be ready to find its way out of the euro if that was the prize to avoid intervention. He wasn’t bluffing. On Monday this week he presented PM Rajoy and ministers in charge of economic matters…

In Europe 26th March 2012

Until Spain’s new budget shows austerity muscle, Brussels must tread carefully

By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | Once again Spain is riding the storm. The sharp reduction witnessed in risk premium over the last months is vanishing. A sharp budget deficit coupled with gloomy growth prospects and soaring unemployment rates are melting confidence down. Claims on a rather subdued debt position fail to impress markets. Fear that financial situation might end up in a plight is deeply ingrained. Worries…

Spanish economy 20th March 2012

Madrid plans to streamline public sector seem merely cosmetic

By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | Spain’s government has pledged to close down 80 publicly owned enterprises, an impressive figure at face value. But most of the adjustment is grounded on the simple recipe of merging subsidiaries into mother companies. Thus the only tangible savings amount to allowances paid to suppressed Boards of Directors. A negligible €1 million cut off that will add very little in terms of budgetary…

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