Spain’s political debate is going on between two irreconcilable adversaries, each one with its own issues. Meanwhile, in the back room where the accounts are done, there is hard work going on to refinance the public and private debt which matures every day. Without some tailwinds, Spain (BBB) could once again find itself facing serious problems.
The figures in Spain are stubborn and worrying. Public debt will exceed 100% of GDP in 2016 and the deficit is not keeping pace with commited goals. So Spain’s public finances are a potential source of future instability, which the country cannot permit given that its external debt is close to 170% of GDP.
Spain’s public debt stood at 1.062.472 trillion euros at the end of September, representing 99.4% of GDP, and compared with the government’s full-year 2015 target of 98.7%. But is this debt burden really so heavy, when the average cost of debt stood at 0.87% at the end of October, compared with 1.52% in December 2014?
Spanish public administration debt fell by €12.7 billion in July to €1.040 trillion
The Corner | July 21, 2015 | Spain’s total public administration debt stood at €1.040 trillion at end-May, up €7.890 billion from a month earlier and representing approximately 97.4% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Bank of Spain. The government expects public debt to reach 98.9% of GDP in 2015.
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | The ECB’s Thursday upcoming meeting will be historical for the EU economy. Any move will mean some easing, even if it will be very difficult that it reactivates the euro zone. What it should definitely do is to massively buy public debt, removing it from financial assets for the banks to find fresh liquid assets as well as capital gains to cover its holes and thus cut interests of private sector’s credit.
MADRID | By Francisco López | In the midst of the euro crisis, Spanish political leaders and some economists showed off about good figures of Spain’s public debt compared to Italy’s. Then, this indicator was a good example that reflected the strengh of national public finances. Now it has turned into a constraint, although fortunately investors do not doubt on the country’s ability to pay back.
MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | Spanish households and businesses were the most indebted at the beginning of the crisis (80% of the total), but now their debt is getting smaller in a systematic and decided way. The same cannot be said of the State, which keeps increasing its public debt with equal zeal (or even more) and has gone from less than 20% at the beginning of the crisis to 36% this week (and still growing).
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Two years, a €100 billion banking bailout, and a comprehensive package of structural reforms later, Spain’s president, Mariano Rajoy, celebrated on Wednesday his 2011 electoral victory. These years’ balance is some sort of bittersweet taste. The country’s external perception has improved, but unemployment and public debt numbers are still a heavy burden.
MADRID | The Corner Team | A typo can come very expensive. One tiny graphical error boosted Spain’s 2014 public debt forecast by 10 billion euros ($13.6 billion), the government admitted on Thursday. After announcing the figure to the world, they took four days to issue a correction.