Spain’s public debt has not stepped on the brakes, and September marked its historical record, reaching 1,578 billion euros. This gap, which continues to expand, is 99% due to the state, which continues its policy of spending at full capacity. Only last month, in August and September, did the Central Administration increase the red numbers by 15,410 million and raise the debt to the highest known 1,477 billion euros. A number that is small when the comparison is made with the months that have passed this year. From January to September, the debt incurred directly by the Government of Pedro Sánchez, that is, by the State, increased to 87,625 million, 6.3% more compared to the annual closure of 2022.
At the interannual rate, this increase is 4.9%, that is, 73,019 million more, which occurred as a result of “lower income and higher costs”, and due to the inflationary pressure created by the increase in prices caused by this “rise in prices”, explain the ministerial sources. These are the data advanced by the Bank of Spain, which points out that last month the debt grew in relative terms by 1%, although the GDP ratio moderated to 109.9% compared to the figure for the second quarter when it arrived. 111.2%, but only thanks to economic growth, not cost containment.
The Budget Plan sent to Brussels sets out optimistic forecasts for economic growth—the team of Nadia Calviño expects the economy to grow by 2.3% in 2023 and 2% in 2024—which they assured would allow them to reduce the debt/GDP ratio up to 108.1% in December, a year’s progress toward the goal of putting it below 110% to maintain the rate of reduction next year to 106.3%, which means a reduction of 14 points in relation to its value in 2020. But this forecast is based on an increase in activity that is not believed by Brussels after lowering the figure for 2024 a few days ago by three tenths, to 1.7%, which makes it very difficult to reach the forecast number.
The Social Security debt did not suffer any change, with 106,172 million euros of accumulated debt until September, the same figure as last month, although the interannual growth reached 6,980 million, which is an increase of 7% due to the loans given. State to the General Treasury of Social Security to fund its budget imbalance. A percentage that will fly again before the end of the year, when the state must again pump money into the organization’s coffers to pay additional Christmas payments to pensioners, with an amount of more than $10,000 million.
Regarding the territorial administrations, the autonomous communities reduced their debt by 1.7% to 320,315 million, 5,601 million less than in August. Local corporations experienced a slight increase of 0.3%, up to 23,331 million. The consolidation of public administrations as a whole—that is, the debt held by the various subsectors that make up that sector—increased by 5.7% compared to last year, to 326,000 million. Most public debt is concentrated in debt securities, 1,395,378 million—the majority long-term (1,313,907 million)—while the rest is distributed among loans (177,103 million) and cash and deposits (5,251 million).
