ZCZC
BCN-02
SPAIN-ECONOMY-DEFICIT-GROWTH
Spain’s public deficit meets EU limit for first time in over a decade
MADRID, March 30, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Spain’s budget deficit fell below the
European Union’s limit of 3.0 percent of economic output last year for the
first time in over a decade, the government said Friday.
The deficit contracted to 2.63 percent of gross domestic product in 2018
from 3.03 percent in the previous year, Finance Minister Maria Jesus Montero
told a news conference.
The is the first time since 2007 when Spain posted a budget surplus equal
to 1.92 percent of its economic output that the country has respected the
EU’s budget limit.
“The deficit has been reduced without putting at risk economic growth and
without leaving anyone behind,” Montero said.
“The Spanish economy maintains its strength and even picked up steam in
the second half of 2018,” she added, saying this had boosted state coffers.
The eurozone’s fourth-largest economy expanded by 2.6 percent last year,
after growing 3.0 percent in 2017, final figures released Friday by national
statistics institute INE showed.
The figures give Montero’s minority Socialist government a potential
boost ahead of a snap general election on April 28.
Spain suffered a prolonged period of economic decline when a decade-long
property bubble burst in 2008, throwing millions of people out of work and
pushing the country to the brink of a bail out.
The country budget deficit surpassed 10 percent of economic output in 2012
at the height of the crisis.
Spain returned to growth in 2014 and economic output has since outpaced
much of the rest of Europe.
BSS/AFP/HR/0925