public debt

The Catalan Government received 3.2 billion euros last week from retail bonds, 0.5 billion euros more than the initial quantity released on the market. In addition, it will have to issue more debt and it needs the agreed money transfers from the Spanish Government. However, the Spanish Deputy Minister for Finance has rejected the request from the Catalan Government of 1.45 billion euros from the Competitiveness Fund and has warned Catalonia not to include that amount in this year’s budget. The Spokesperson for the Catalan Government accuses the Spanish Government of “acting as a defaulter”.

In order to attain liquidity and taking into account the difficulties getting money from the international markets, the Catalan Government is selling 2.7 billion euros worth of treasury bonds. These will be bought by citizens at bank branches. One-year bonds have a 4.25% interest rate while for two-year bonds it is 4.75%. At the end of the first day of sales, 29% of the bonds were sold. The measure was already taken last October by the previous Government and the totality of the bonds were sold quickly.

The Bank of Spain today released the debt of the Spanish Autonomous Communities. Catalan public debt represents 16.2% of Catalonia’s GDP and increased 36.7% in one year. The new Catalan Government stressed its austerity and stability plan, which will cut public expenditure by 10%.

Experts in economics and regional fiscal redistribution concluded at a conference in London that the Spanish Autonomous Communities’ expenditure like Catalonia’s is not to be blamed for the downgrading of Spanish debt. They stated that the Catalan Government can not only be “an expenditure agency” and that it needs total control over its revenues and budget.

The Spanish Government gave eight autonomous communities the green light to issue a fixed amount of new debt in order to refinance old loans. With this, Catalonia will be able to issue new debt of 1,866 million euros. However, 1,090 million of this will be used on old healthcare payments from 2006.

The Catalan Government’s initiative received the support of its own group (CiU) as well as votes from the opposition: the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), the Catalan People’s Party (PPC) and the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC). The Catalan Minister for Economy Andreu Mas-Colell explained the details of the legal initiative that was passed via an urgency procedure. The initial amount will be of 2,613 million euros.

After yesterday’s meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero and the Catalan President, nine Autonomous Communities are protesting and accusing Zapatero of giving privileges to Catalonia. The Catalan Government rejects these accusations recalling that all the discussed transfers were pending issues that had already been agreed on. The new debt will be used to re-finance previous debt and reduce the deficit. This evening, the Spanish Ministry of Economy clarified that Catalonia’s authorisation will be applicable to all the Communities with an approved viability plan.

The Catalan Government will be able to issue more public debt and the State will pay Catalonia 759 million euros that are pending from 2008. According to the Catalan Government, the Spanish Executive owes more than 2,100 million euros, although the figure could be larger. The Catalan President, Artur Mas, claimed this amount and the Catalan Government’s capacity to issue new debt, after having presented a viability and austerity plan a week ago. Both leaders discussed pending competence devolutions today regarding already approved legislation and agreements, but without concrete results. Prime Minister Zapatero was also very interested in this meeting as he wants to count on votes from Mas’ party in the Spanish Parliament. Mas confirmed that his party would support Zapatero’s measures to foster the economic recovery, such as the pension system reform agreement or a new framework for SMEs.

In an interview with the Financial Times this weekend, the Prime Minister Zapatero threatened to intervene in some Autonomous Communities’ budgets. Today the Spanish Secretary for Economic Affairs reiterated this threat. However the Catalan Government has stressed that Catalonia has in fact no problem with its public deficit. Catalan political parties reminded the Spanish State that the Autonomous Communities only have one sixth of the entire public debt throughout Spain.

For the whole of Spain, Autonomous Communities’ public debt represents 10.2% of Spain’s GDP in the 3rd term of 2010. It is the highest it has been since 1990. However, the largest part of the public debt comes from the Spanish Government, which represents 44.1% of Spain’s GDP. Finally, public debt from local public administrations only represented 3.4% of Spain’s GDP. In total, Spain’s public debt represents 57.7% of the country’s GDP, much lower than in the UK, Germany or Ireland.

Various banks and savings banks are asking the Catalan Government to extend the total bond amount to 3,000 million euros. The Catalan Ministry of Economy will make the decision whether or not to extend the amount on Friday. The Catalan Government's debt bonds were issued for an initial amount of 1,890 million euros and further extended to 2,500 million euros due to their massive purchase by Catalan citizens

As a result of the Catalan Government’s success in bond sales, they have made the decision to increase the overall bond amount to 2,500 million euros. The bonds can be purchased until the 12th of November by private citizens.

Today banks and savings banks started selling the treasury bonds announced by the Catalan Government two weeks ago to get cash. On the first day, about 1,000 million euros have been bought. If this pace continues, the bonds will be sold out by next week. The quantity on sale is 1,890 million, which could be increased to 2,500.

The UK rating agency stresses that measures to cut public expenditure will have to be accelerated. The recent decision by the Catalan Government to issue bonds to obtain cash have influenced the agency. Moody’s is sticking to its short-term rating and lowers-down the long-term one. The Government will now have more difficulties in getting funding in international markets.

Citizens will be able to buy treasury bonds of the Catalan Government’s debt worth 1,000 euros each at a 4.75% interest rate. In the framework of the electoral campaign, the Opposition denounced that the Catalan Executive has “its drawers empty, without money”. The Catalan Government has denied this and accused the opposition of being irresponsible in order to get votes.