The public debt makesvulnerable” to Spain. The liabilities comfortably exceed the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is at 112%, specifically, according to the latest data from the Bank of Spain. And according to the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF), in the next years “stabilizes slightly above 100%”, which leaves the country in a situation of weakness in the face of the next crisis. Therefore, the organization once again asks the Government, for the umpteenth time, to act. To develop a plan of containment that, given the precedents, it seems unlikely that the Executive will apply.
The AIReF request comes through its president, Cristina Herrero, who completes half of his six-year term. And in this context, the head of the Tax Authority urges the Government to withdraw the anti-inflation aid measures now. The different tax reductions, bonuses and credits. About electricity, gas or transportation, which expire at the end of the year. The Executive is evaluating what to do although it has already launched a probe balloon regarding its possible elimination. And the different national and international organizations have already indicated the need to withdraw the measures, just as AIReF is now doing.
“The time has come to withdraw these measures.“, explains Herrero in statements distributed to the media, to reconnect at this point with that need to control public accounts. “And what AIReF sees is that once the measures that have been adopted have been completely eliminated, these years, the deficit stagnates at around 3% and that implies that the debt ratio stabilizes slightly above 100%. No one is unaware that it is a situation that puts us in a vulnerable position“, he states.
“It is necessary to address the fiscal situation with a medium-term perspective,” says Herrero, who also addresses an additional problem for the stability of public accounts: The aging of the population. “The mere aging of the population, we have made an opinion in that sense, an evaluation, represents an upward pressure on spending, not only spending on pensions, but also on health and long-term care. So the ratio of debt will not only stabilize, but would begin an upward path,” he warns.