A bad bingo from the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, is confirmed in the last year of economic prosperity before the coronavirus crisis. The technicians of the Ministry of Finance themselves certify in their report on the 2019 financial year that the Department failed to meet all the stability objectives set by law: deficit, debt and spending rule. In the document concluded this May and titled Report on the degree of compliance with the objective of budgetary stability and public debt and the spending rule for the 2019 financial year, the finance technicians point out that the Central State Administration deviated in everything. After that action, the Government has now arranged in the current crisis of lower budget margin than expected.

"The deficit to be considered for the 2019 financial year amounts to 35,160 million euros, a figure equivalent to 2.82% of the estimated GDP for that year, which implies the failure to meet the budget stability objective set by the Government for the financial year 2019, which it was 1.3% of GDP, "stresses the report that puts the magnifying glass on the initial official objective, although the 2% smoothing that the minister self-imposed was also not met.

The objective referred exclusively to the Central State Administration, which was marked at 0.3% of GDP, is also violated. "The deficit of the Central Administration stands at 16,165 million euros, 1.3% of GDP, which implies the failure to meet the budget stability objective, having produced a negative deviation of 1 point of GDP." Equivalent to 12,000 million default. It was the Administration that deviated the most, although so did the set of autonomous communities (0.4%) and Social Security (0.4%). Only local corporations, with a surplus of 0.3%, adhered to the letter of the current objectives.

Regarding the communities, the Treasury considers that Andalusia, Galicia, Madrid, the Canary Islands, Navarra and the Basque Country have met their objective of budgetary stability. "On the contrary, the Autonomous Communities of Aragón, Asturias, Baleares, Cantabria, Castilla La Mancha, Castilla y León, Cataluña, Extremadura, Murcia, La Rioja and Valencia have registered deficit figures higher than the target set."

Montero also does not pass the second test, that of the spending rule, which prevented this item from rising beyond 2.7% in 2019 due to prudence. Neither did it in what depended on it, which rose 3.2%, nor did it contain the autonomous communities (4.8% increase) or local corporations (5.1%). "In the case of the Central Administration, the computable expenses for the fiscal year 2019 have been 3.2% higher than those registered in the previous year, a variation that implies non-compliance with the expense rule." However, the Ministry apologizes that if there had not been a reclassification of expenses from the Insurance Compensation Consortium, it would have been possible to comply with this rule in the Central Administration. According to the document, Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, and La Rioja respected the spending rule. "On the contrary, Aragon, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla La Mancha, Castilla y León, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra, the Basque Country and Valencia have failed."

In the case of public debt and despite the fact that the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, assured the European Commission that it had been met , the Ministry's technicians also see violation. "The Central Administration and the Social Security Funds have reached a joint debt as a percentage of GDP of 69.9%, so the debt target, set at 69.5% of GDP, has been breached," the report suspended. .

The Minister of Finance of Madrid, Javier Fernández-Lasquetty, has been satisfied that the regional government has met at least the deficit and debt targets "vis-à-vis a central government that fails to comply with everything."

In statements to the media, Lasquetty stressed that Madrid has respected the deficit target, unlike eleven autonomous regions, while in the debt target, it maintains the lowest of all the common regime communities.

"Madrid at the end of 2019 had the lowest deficit in the last 16 years and that has allowed us to start this crisis much better prepared than if we had not applied the correct policies in all the previous years," he declared.

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  • Galicia
  • The Rioja
  • Madrid
  • Andalusia
  • Murcia
  • Asturias
  • Navarre
  • Basque Country
  • Valencia
  • Estremadura
  • Catalonia
  • Castilla y León
  • Cantabria
  • Balearics
  • Canary Islands
  • Social Security
  • Nadia Calviño
  • Maria Jesus Montero
  • European Comission
  • Aragon
  • Public deficit

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