• Since 2010 The black decade of public debt: soars by more than 660,000 million

From the 1.20 trillion in which it was just before the outbreak of the pandemic - or, rather, just before the Government began to take action -, to 1.36 trillion. In total, an increase of

just over 165,000 million and a rebound of 452 million euros per day

. These are the dizzying figures that the public debt throws up, whose data updated to February has been published by the Bank of Spain this Thursday and in which the notable increase in liabilities registered during the year of the pandemic and that, in addition, will undoubtedly go to more.

The notable rise in public debt is, according to practically all economists, totally justified in the face of a crisis that occurred and of unknown proportions in times of peace before which a response from the State was necessary. But in the case of Spain there is a double problem. On the one hand, it was based on very high levels of liabilities given the inability of the different governments to tackle liabilities even in years of economic growth. And on the other, and precisely because of that displayed disability, the fear or even the certainty that

future generations will continue to pay the consequences of the increase

.

Precisely for this reason, the Bank of Spain itself, through both the Governor, Pablo Hernández de Cos, and the General Director of Economy and Statistics, Óscar Arce, have warned on numerous occasions that

a credible and rigorous debt reduction plan

is necessary

. And not only them, but also Cristina Herrero from the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF). Why? Because when the next crisis occurs, a margin of action will undoubtedly be needed, which this time has already been shown to be insufficient and to be an added problem in times of recession. That is, a high debt exacerbates the crisis.

But the truth is that, for now, the Government is not working on any plan. "The priority is to support growth and create jobs," they argue from the Treasury, where they see the fiscal adjustment as something that should be addressed in the future, yes, but not yet. And another part of the government, that of

Podemos, goes even further and considers that the way out of the crisis is to increase public spending and, therefore, increase the debt

. They estimate that there has been a paradigm shift, that the increase in liabilities is no longer a problem, that with the support of the European Central Bank (ECB) this will not be a problem and they are even betting on forgiveness.

And in Europe it is true that controls have been relaxed.

So much so that the fiscal rules have been suspended.

But from Germany, voices have already begun to be heard asking for something very similar to what the Bank of Spain and AIReF are demanding:

progress in the adjustment plan

.

And, of course, the forgiveness is considered almost an extravagance.

18 billion more in February

Back to the data published by the Bank of Spain, the figures show that only last February the increase was more than 18,000 million and, in relative terms, it already exceeds 120% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

If the end of 2019 is taken, when the debt was at 95%,

the advance is a spectacular 25% of GDP

.

A quarter of the entire Spanish economy.

By areas, most of the liabilities correspond to the Central Administration, which has also been from where the response to the crisis has been centralized.

But even so, the debt in the Social Security Administrations has also grown strongly and is at historical highs with a figure that

exceeds 85,000 million.

A year ago, the figure was 30 billion less.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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