The Government approves the 2023 Budgets, the most expansive of democracy

MADRID, 4 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government has approved this Tuesday the draft law of the General State Budgets (PGE) of 2023, the most expansive of the Spanish democracy, with more than 198,000 million euros of spending ceiling, which incorporate the increase in the salary of civil servants , updating pensions with the CPI, more health spending and new aid for families and the unemployed.

In the press conference after the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Finance and Public Administration, María Jesús Montero, highlighted that the objective of these Budgets, the third ones of the Coalition Government and the last ones of this legislature, is to be able to transit a moment of "enormous uncertainty" due to the war in Ukraine, while offering "security and stability" to families and sending a "clear message" abroad about the solvency and dynamism of the Spanish economy.

The First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, has indicated that the new public accounts are based on a growth forecast of 2.1% for next year, which she has described as "prudent", and anticipate a GDP deflator of 4% for this year and 3.8% for 2023. The private consumption deflator is estimated at 7.7% in 2022 and 4.1% for the next year.

Regarding the evolution of the labor market, Calviño highlighted that by the end of 2023, the Government expects that there will be 21 million people employed and that the unemployment rate will be below 12%.

The new Budgets incorporate the recently announced tax package, which includes the new tax on large fortunes from a net worth of 3 million euros, the reduction of income tax for income up to 21,000 euros, the increase in the tax on income from the capital from 200,000 euros, the reduction of the modules for the self-employed or the rise in Corporation Tax for large companies.

With record social spending, with these accounts the Government seeks to strengthen health -especially primary care-, education, dependency or scholarships for next year. In addition, the PSOE and United We Can have agreed on the deployment of a Family Law that will include new conciliation permits, the promotion of a child-rearing benefit of 100 euros per month for families with children under 0 to 3 years of age and single-mother families will be assimilated , with two children, to the current category of large families.

Montero recalled that the non-financial spending limit for 2023, known as the 'spending ceiling', which amounts to 198,221 million euros, a new record, 1.1% higher than that of 2022, including 25,156 million European funds and a transfer to Social Security of 19,888 million, 8.1% more than last year.

Regarding debt, Calviño explained that in 2023 it will continue the downward path that began after the pandemic thanks to economic growth and the reduction of the public deficit. Specifically, it will stand at 112.4% of GDP.

With these accounts, civil servants will see their remuneration grow by 2.5% and may be increased by up to one additional point depending on variables linked to the CPI and nominal GDP. Civil servants will receive 0.5% more if the sum of the Harmonized CPI for 2022 and the forward Harmonized CPI for September 2023 exceeds 6%.

The other variable, also 0.5%, will be applied if the nominal GDP equals or exceeds that estimated in the macroeconomic table that accompanies the 2023 PGE, in accordance with what was agreed with the CCOO and UGT unions.

Next year's accounts will also have to face the updating of pensions according to the interannual CPI for the month of November, which could be between 7% and 8%, according to experts, which will mean a significant budgetary effort .

Predictably, the public accounts could reach the Congress of Deputies next week. That day, the Government will present the 'yellow book', in which the main figures of the Budget for 2022 are presented, accompanied by the obligatory gender report, the report on how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are progressing and the childhood report , adolescence and family, as well as an offprint on youth.