ARCHIVED - Spanish public debt reaches another new record high
A rise of 13.8 per cent in 12 months pushes debt up to 120 per cent of GDP
The level of Spain’s public debt again climbed to a new record high during February, according to the latest update published on Thursday by the Banco de España, reaching 1.36 billion euros after an increase of 13.8 per cent over the last twelve months.
Since the pandemic reached Spain public administrations in Spain have fallen a further 165,256 million euros further into debt, the figure having risen by another 18,601 million during February alone. As a result the amount owed is now close to 120 per cent of GDP, after dipping to around 95 per cent at the end of 2019, much of the increase due to the drop of 11 per cent in economic activity last year.
The increase in the overall total is once again due almost exclusively to a rise in the indebtedness of the national government rather than regional or local administrations, and is of course attributable mostly to the extra spending brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and the consequences of the national state of emergency. Regional governments, on the other hand, actually reduced their level of debt, while the figures for Town Halls across the country and the Social Security service remained more or less steady during February.