MADRID, Sept 30 — Spain’s public debt soared in the second quarter to its highest level in at least 20 years as government spending rose sharply in an effort to tame the coronavirus pandemic, official figures showed today.
Data from the Bank of Spain put total debt at €1.29 trillion (RM6.3 trillion) or 110 per cent of GDP, up from 1.22 trillion or some 99 per cent in the first three months of the year.
For much of the second quarter, Spain was in lockdown with the economy put into “hibernation” to fight the spread of the virus.
In May, Spain’s government acknowledged that managing the pandemic would have a devastating effect on the public accounts, given the collapse in revenue during months of lockdown and the “sharp rise” in expenditure to offset the resulting economic crisis.
Government estimates see Spain’s debt-to-GDP ratio soaring to as much as 115.5 per cent by the year’s end.
Over the same period, the annual public or budget deficit is seen rising to 10.3 per cent, compared with 6.12 per cent at the end of June, to produce the “biggest deficit since 2012”.
The government has activated a number of key measures to mitigate the pandemic’s impact on the economy, notably an extended furlough scheme, which are set to cost the equivalent of 20 per cent of this year’s GDP.
Although the state of emergency was lifted in late June, Spain is currently fighting a second wave of the virus which has now killed 31,000 people and infected more than 750,000, the highest infection rate within the European Union.
Spain plunged into recession in the second quarter when its gross domestic product tumbled by 18.5 per cent due to the pandemic. First-quarter growth fell 5.2 per cent, with a recession commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of a contraction in GDP. — AFP
