Deficit reduction: Insufficient progress and low probability of improvement
Fecha: febrero 2020
Santiago Lago Peñas
Consolidación fiscal, Déficit público
Spanish and International Economic & Financial Otlook, SEFO, V. 9 N.º 1
Due to both economic and political pressures, Spain has repeatedly pushed back its deficit targets. Unfortunately, the total public deficit will not come down substantially in 2019 compared to 2018, as expenditure has continued to grow. Moreover, although the government failed to pass its general state budget for 2019, it did push through increases in public sector wages, pensions and unemployment benefits by way of decree. To put the situation into context, with a public debt-to-GDP ratio of 98.9%, Spain is the seventh most indebted European nation, well above the eurozone (86.4%) and EU-27 (80.5%) averages. Looking forward, the 2020 state budget has yet to take shape. However, initial estimates show that while announced tax increases could boost revenue between 0.3% to 0.4% of GDP, implementation of the expenditure measures contained in the coalition agreement will require paring back other spending initiatives or additional measures on the revenue-generation front.