Valladolid/Madrid, (EFE).- The public debt of Castilla y León closed 2022 with a volume of 13,322 million euros, which is equivalent to 20.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, a figure that represents two percentage points less than in the previous year and places this Community below the average debt ratio of the Spanish autonomies, located at 23.9 percent of GDP.
This is how it appears in the data provided this Friday by the Bank of Spain, which blames Castilla y León for 4.2 percent of the total volume of public debt issued by the Spanish autonomies as a whole, estimated at 316,937 million euros.
This record at the end of 2022 means that the Junta de Castilla y León -eighth in the regional table- would have already covered the objective that has been set for the present 2023, since in the budgets for the present exercise it has been proposed that this level of indebtedness does not exceed 21 percent.
The decrease in the debt ratio occurs from the 22.7 percent that was registered at the end of 2021 to the current 20.8 percent.
The Board has detailed in its statement that the Bank of Spain incorporates the reimbursable credits that the Community Administration grants to companies, quantified at 268.9 million euros, as well as the so-called ‘non-recourse factoring’ –commercial credits with the Administration ceded to financial entities–, which adds 7.6 million euros and also the indebtedness associated with public-private collaboration projects for 256 million euros.
The largest amount in the debt portfolio of Castilla y León corresponds to public debt issues that represent 26.8%, with 3,570.7 million euros, followed by the Financial Facility Fund with 2,157.5 million euros, -specifically, 16.2%-, corresponding to loans arranged in 2015 and 2020.
The third lender is the multilateral financial institutions, such as the European Investment Bank and the Council of Europe Development Bank, with 1,334.7 million euros, 10% of the Community’s debt.
From the point of view of the person responsible for the regional debt, the majority corresponds to the General Administration of the Community (Board), with 96.4 percent, while the remaining 3.6 percent is distributed among universities, organizations self-employed, public entities under private law and public companies, among others.
Regarding the maturity terms, the Board explains that 99.5% of the Community’s outstanding debt is formalized in the long term, compared to 0.5% signed in the short term, and 78.7% is arranged at a rate of fixed interest, compared to 21.3% variable, which allows mitigating the effect of increases in the Euribor.
Public debt in Spain
Spanish public debt once again set a record in 2022, when it closed at 1.5 trillion euros, although its ratio to GDP fell to 113.2%, 5.1 points less than at the end of 2021 (118, 3%) and 2 points below the government forecast (115.2%).
GDP growth made it possible to maintain the downward path of the public debt ratio in 2022, which marks distances from the maximum of 120.4% of GDP with which it closed 2020, but is still far from the target of 60% of GDP set European rules, according to data updated this Friday by the Bank of Spain.
However, despite the positive evolution of the ratio, in nominal terms public debt continued to rise to a record of 1,502,543 million euros, 5.3% above the hitherto all-time high at the close of 2021 (1,427,238 million), but below the data for the third quarter of 2022 (1,503,760 million).
As usual, at the end of 2022 most of the debt was concentrated in the central administration, which accumulated 1,358,814 million euros of debt, 6.1% more, a figure equivalent to 102.4% of GDP , almost four points less than a year before.
Public debt of the CCAAs
The autonomous communities also increased their indebtedness in 2022, reaching 316,937 million, 1.4% more, although the ratio fell to 23.8% of GDP, 2.1 points less.
At the end of 2022, the most indebted autonomous communities with respect to their GDP were the Valencian Community (44.4%), Castilla-La Mancha (33.4%), Catalonia (33.4%) and Murcia (32.2% ), while the lowest ratios were found in Madrid (13.5%), the Basque Country (13.7%), the Canary Islands (13.9%) and Navarra (14.1%).
Social Security was the subsector that increased its debt the most last year, 9.3%, to 106,178 million, with a GDP ratio of 8%, one tenth less than a year earlier.
With regard to local entities, they closed 2022 with a debt of 23,019 million, 4.3% more, which is equivalent to 1.7% of GDP, one tenth less.
The municipalities of municipalities with more than 300,000 inhabitants with the largest debts were Madrid (1,738 million, after reducing it by 3.5%) and Barcelona (1,117 million, after shooting it up by 36.5%).
By instrument, at the end of 2022 most of the public debt was concentrated in securities, especially long-term (1.25 trillion), although also short-term (65,599 million), while the rest was distributed in loans (182,325 million) and cash and deposits (5,151 million). EFE