Balearic debt at 5´414 mln euros

According to details released by the Bank of Spain yesterday, debt in Andalucia rose from 4'673 million euros in the second quarter by 15.85 percent.
The debt of all the country's regions totalled 167'460 million euros in the first nine months of the year, 0.48 percent less than the 168'271 million euros registered until June 2012, the highest of an historic series. This is the first quarter with a downturn in regional debt since the third quarter of 2008.

Despite the slight downturn, the ratio of debt compared to PIB of the regions has maintained a level of 15.9 percent of PIB, the same figure as in the previous quarter. Furthermore, in year-on-year terms, the regional debt has risen by 21.7 percent.

Volume of debt
The Balearics is the region of Spain with the ninth highest debt volume, following behind Catalonia with a debt figure of 45'754 million euros, an amount which represents 27.3 percent of the total of accumulated debt in all regions of the country.

Valencia comes next with 25'574 million euros and Madrid with 17'780 million. These four regions account for 64.2 percent of the total of regional debt.

The regions with the highest ratio of debt over PIB are Castilla-La Mancha (25.7%), Valencia (25%), Catalonia (23%) and the Balearics (20.3%).
At the other end of the scale with lower ratios come Madrid, with 9.5% of its PIB, the Canary Islands (9.9%) and the Basque Country (10.7%).
In Andalucia, public company debt rose in the third quarter this year to 717 million euros, 4.2 percent more than in the preceding term and 8.3 percent higher than the 662 million euros of debt registered in the third quarter of 2011.

In this context, the debt/PIB ratio has for the sixth consecutive term maintained a level of 0.5 percent compared to 1.2 percent as the average for public companies throughout the regions.

So far as the local town councils are concerned, said the Bank of Spain, Malaga town council's debt has reached 749 million euros, 1.05 percent less than in the previous quarter and 3.9 percent more if compared with the third quarter of 2011.

Data for Seville town council shows that its debt between July and September was 442 million euros, 1.5 percent less than in the second quarter of this year and 6.7 percent lower than in the third quarter of 2011.

Much concern has been shown by all parties in the Balearic government this year about the significantly lower levels of funding that the Islands can expect from Central Government. Faced with maintaining a high level of public service cutting health spending by less than 4 percent, the government is still having to pay off huge sums in interest on loans.