Sánchez advances that the public deficit closed at 3.7% in 2023, two tenths below the objective

MADRID, 20 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced this Wednesday that Spain's public deficit closed at a rate of 3.7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023, improving by two tenths the objective committed to Brussels (3, 9%).

It was in his first intervention in the control session in Congress this Wednesday and in response to the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, where Sánchez advanced this information.

"Thanks to the good economic performance of the country, I can already guarantee that this year we are going to close, or rather, the year 2023, we are going to close with a public deficit of 3.7%," Sánchez said specifically.

A rate that, according to Sánchez, means meeting the fiscal objectives that the Government had previously set, in line with a country project marked by "dialogue, coexistence, fiscal responsibility, economic growth, job creation and rights". "That is governing, and by the way, governing well," the president stressed.

Along these lines, Pedro Sánchez recalled that it was the European Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, who said that Spain "is in better shape than the European Union", so that the country is growing "five times more than the average of the Euro zone", has one of the lowest inflation data, with almost 21 million people affiliated with Social Security and a temporary employment rate of 16%.

DEVIATIONS IN THE DEFICIT BY SUBSECTORS

The Ministry of Finance usually releases the annual budget execution data for all public administrations at the end of March, so we will have to wait until the end of this month for the ratification of this final figure for 2023 and to know the details. Of the report.

Already in 2021 and 2022, after the impact of the pandemic and its consequences on public accounts, the deficit of all public administrations (AAPP) managed to improve the objectives committed by the Government to Brussels, up to rates of 6.76% and 4.8%, respectively.

"This Government has always met the deficit objective," the first vice president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, recently defended.

Although, as a whole, the deficit of all administrations would have behaved better than expected in 2023, Montero has recognized that deviations would have occurred in some subsector that is not the General State Administration (AGE) - communities, city councils or Social Security--.

For this year, the Government maintains the public deficit target for all administrations at 3%, although no new Budgets will be approved and those for 2023 will remain in force.