The loose ends of Spanish economy

Days before the last employment figures were released last week. Eurostat published eurozone data concerning the eurozone’s public deficit, which decreased by an average 2.9% in 2013 to 2.4% in 2014 in relation to GDP, whereas for the 28 member countries of the Union it stood at 2.9% last year.

Spain met its commitment with the European Commission, yet its public deficit stood at 5.8%, only surpassed by Cyprus (8.8%), while decadent Greece managed to have its public deficit 2.3 points below Spain to 3.5%. Madrid aims to reduce its deficit by 2015 down to 4.2% of GDP.

 For those who think that public surplus is a chimera, the examples of Denmark (+ 1.2%), Germany (+ 0.7%) and Estonia and Luxembourg (+ 0.6%), are the proof. On the opposite side, Croatia and United Kingdom (5.7%), Slovenia (4.9%), Portugal (4.5%), Ireland (4.1%), France (4.0%), show that the crisis has taken its toll.

Talking about deficit means talking debt, which went up for the whole of the eurozone to reach 91.9% at the end of 2014, well above the 60% required by the Stability pact.

 Besides, public debt in the EMU increased from 90.9% of GDP at the end of 2013 to 91.9% at the end of 2014, while in the EU-28 it rose from 85.5% to 86.8%. States with more debt at the end of 2014 were Greece (177.1%), Italy (132.1%), Portugal (130.2%), Ireland (109.7%), Cyprus (107.5%) and Belgium (106.5%). Spain’s debt continued to rise, reaching 97.70% of GDP with a 5.60 points increase in 2014 compared to 2013, when debt was 92.10% of GDP.

Another aspect closely linked to the previous two is public spending, which was equivalent to 49% of the GDP in the eurozone.

After reducing it by 0.78% in 2014, Spain spent 43.6% of GDP, even though public revenue only stood at 37.8% –eurozone’s stood at 46.6% of GDP.