budget surplus

The left-wing independence party ERC has joined the governing centre-right pro-Catalan State coalition CiU in allowing the Catalan Government’s budget bill for 2015 to continue its parliamentary approval process. Although critical of the budget proposal, the ERC backed the centre-right coalition in the hope that Catalan President and CiU leader Artur Mas will call early elections in the coming weeks, which are likely to be transformed into a ‘de facto’ referendum on independence. The CiU and the ERC have a different approach towards any such elections and have been negotiating for a number of weeks. The approval of the 2015 budget has become an additional element of the talks, a fact which has been criticised by the other parties. On Thursday, the CiU and the ERC rejected the full amendments filed by the rest of opposition parties. 

Barcelona’s City Council has achieved a cumulative budget surplus of €23.5 million for the last few years, after posting a budget surplus of €139.3 million in 2013. In a press conference on Wednesday, the Deputy Mayor for Economy, Business and Employment, Sònia Recasens also announced that the city had eventually executed 97.55%, (€2.25 billion) of its planned expenditure. Such a figure is higher than the average execution ratio for 2009-2013. The execution ratio for investments amounts to 94% (€356 million) and is also significantly higher than in 2009-2013. In addition, debt levels represent 46.7% of the annual ordinary revenue. Furthermore, the City Council paid its providers in 29.2 days on average. Thanks to these figures, the City Council will make available 1,000 new social housing units in Barcelona.