On Tuesday, the Ministry of the Treasury and Public Administration Services posted the performance data for the State in May on its website, which show a deficit equivalent to 2.08% of GDP in public accounting terms.
The consolidated deficit of the Central Government, regional governments and Social Security system for January-April was also published, which stands at 1.23% of GDP.
Finally, the first budget performance data for the local authorities in 2016 was published, which show a surplus of 662 million euros in the first quarter of the year.
State Deficit (May)
In the period January-May, the Spanish State posted a deficit of 23.3 billion euros, which is equivalent to 2.08% of GDP. This figure is similar to that posted in the same period of the previous year, when it stood at 2.04% of GDP.
Non-financial State resources
To the end of May, non-financial State resources amounted to 58.9 billion euros, compared with 62.55 billion posted in the same period of 2015.
Tax and National Insurance revenue amounted to 53.85 billion euros, of which 14.47 billion euros correspond to current taxes on income and wealth and 36.34 billion euros correspond to taxes on production and imports. The latter grew by 1.9%, mainly due to a VAT revenue increase of 2.9% on the same period of the previous year.
As regards all other non-tax resources, which grew by 20%, dividends and other revenue are worth highlighting, with an increase of 13.9% caused by greater dividends from the Bank of Spain.
Non-financial State expenses
To May, non-financial State expenses fell by 2.9% year-on-year to 82.2 billion euros.
A generalised fall in the main expenditure headings was observed, with a 4.3% reduction in current expenses when compared with the period January-May 2015. Current transfers between public administration services - which are the largest item - amounted to 46.59 billion euros, a decrease of 3.7% on the previous year. There was a reduction of 2.57 billion euros in the transfers made to the State Public Employment Service to finance unemployment benefits due to positive trends in the labour market. In contrast, transfers to regional governments increased by 2.9%.
Spending on intermediate consumption also fell by 10.6%, as did accrued interest, which fell by 5.6%. The contribution made to finance the European Union Budget fell by 20.3% on last year, due to a faster pace of execution in 2015.
Among the revenue expenditure headings that increased, it is worth highlighting the 20% increase in international cooperation and social benefits other than social transfers in kind, which increased by 5.2%, mainly due to increased spending on pensions for former public servants. Labour costs also increased due to the reimbursement of 50% of the bonus payment delayed in 2012, compared with the 25% that was reimbursed in the same period of 2015.
Under capital expenses, gross formation stood at 1.77 billion euros - up 4.5% on 2015 due to increased military investment in the Armed Forces Modernisation Plan. In turn, capital transfers fell from 1.38 billion euros in 2015 to 947 million euros in 2016 as a result of the fact that 211 million euros were transferred last year to the Energy Diversification and Saving Institute (Spanish acronym: IDAE) as part of the Efficient Vehicle Incentive Plan (Spanish acronym: PIVE) and 117 million euros were transferred to Red.es. Neither of these operations have a correlation this year.
Combined deficit of the Central Government, Autonomous Regions and Social Security (April)
The consolidated deficit of the public authorities in the first four-month period, excluding local authorities, amounted to 13.81 billion euros, equivalent to 1.23% of GDP. This figure excludes the net balance of aid to financial institutions, which stood at 48 million euros negative at the end of April.
Central Government
Central Government posted a deficit of 12.88 billion euros at the end of April, equal to 1.15% of GDP. The Central Government balance includes the State balance plus the surplus of Central Government bodies, as below:
- The State deficit to April stands at 14.07 billion euros (1.25% of GDP).
- The Central Government Agencies posted a surplus at the end of April of 1.19 billion euros, up 26.4% on 2015.
Social Security Fund
Social Security Funds posted a surplus of 1.64 billion euros, equal to 0.15% of GDP. Within this sub-sector, it is worth noting the 3.7% increase to April revenue from National Insurance contributions, which reflects a significant acceleration when compared with the same period of the previous year, when growth in National Insurance contributions stood at 0.4%.
This situation is mainly due to performance by the State Public Employment Service, which posted a surplus of 715 million euros, equal to 0.06% of GDP, in the first four-month period of 2016 compared with 0.16% of GDP posted in the same month last year. This reduced surplus is due to fewer transfers received from the State to finance unemployment benefits resulting from favourable trends in the labour market. The Social Security system posted a surplus of 1.04 billion euros, equivalent to 0.09% of GDP, compared with 0.14% posted in April 2015. Finally, the Wage Guarantee Fund (Spanish acronym: FOGASA) posted a deficit of 117 million euros, compared with 52 million euros posted in April 2015.
Regional governments
To the end of April, the deficit of the regional governments fell by 29.5% to 2.62 billion euros. In terms of GDP, the deficit posted by this sub-sector stands at 0.23%, being lower than the deficit of last year, which stood at 0.34%.
Consolidated deficit of the Public Administration Services (March)
The first performance data in public accounting terms for the local authorities corresponding to the first quarter of the year were also published on Tuesday. In the period, the local authorities posted a surplus of 662 million euros, equal to 0.06% of GDP (compared with 0.09% in the same period of 2015).
With these data from the local authorities, the consolidated deficit of all public administration services as a whole stands at 8.26 billion euros in the first quarter of 2015, equal to 0.74% of GDP.
EFE