AFP, Madrid :
Spain’s government was forced to defend itself yesterday against claims it polished its outlook for its recovering public finances ahead of a general election.
EU officials warned last week that the conservative administration’s public deficit targets in its 2016 budget were over-optimistic. Critics accused it of electioneering by rushing out the budget ahead of December’s election. They warned the plan could mean billions more euros of spending cuts.
The government went on the defensive, vowing it would keep its promise to lower the deficit to within EU limits next year. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told reporters in New York: “I am very confident, and the Spanish people are too, that we are going to meet the deficit.” Finance Minister Luis de Guindos said on Tuesday: “I am convinced we are going to meet the Spanish government’s budgetary forecasts” for a deficit of 4.2 percent of GDP this year and 2.8 percent for 2016. “According to the latest data we have, revenues are growing more than we had estimated in the budget,” he added, in a speech in Madrid on Tuesday evening. He said the government hoped to save 8.5 billion euros ($9.7 billion) this year thanks to improved tax revenues and other factors. Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria in a television interview earlier openly denied claims that the government’s strong forecasts were merely designed to give it a boost ahead of the legislative polls on December 20. Spain’s conservative government has made tens of billions of euros in spending cuts over recent years which it said were necessary to drag the country out of an economic crisis.
But the EU finance commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Spain’s latest forecasts are “a bit optimistic”. The European Commission asked Spain to draw up a new budget programme.
The commission forecast Madrid would record a public deficit of 4.5 percent of gross domestic product this year and 3.5 percent in 2016 — still above the three-percent limit set in EU treaties.
Spain’s government was forced to defend itself yesterday against claims it polished its outlook for its recovering public finances ahead of a general election.
EU officials warned last week that the conservative administration’s public deficit targets in its 2016 budget were over-optimistic. Critics accused it of electioneering by rushing out the budget ahead of December’s election. They warned the plan could mean billions more euros of spending cuts.
The government went on the defensive, vowing it would keep its promise to lower the deficit to within EU limits next year. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told reporters in New York: “I am very confident, and the Spanish people are too, that we are going to meet the deficit.” Finance Minister Luis de Guindos said on Tuesday: “I am convinced we are going to meet the Spanish government’s budgetary forecasts” for a deficit of 4.2 percent of GDP this year and 2.8 percent for 2016. “According to the latest data we have, revenues are growing more than we had estimated in the budget,” he added, in a speech in Madrid on Tuesday evening. He said the government hoped to save 8.5 billion euros ($9.7 billion) this year thanks to improved tax revenues and other factors. Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria in a television interview earlier openly denied claims that the government’s strong forecasts were merely designed to give it a boost ahead of the legislative polls on December 20. Spain’s conservative government has made tens of billions of euros in spending cuts over recent years which it said were necessary to drag the country out of an economic crisis.
But the EU finance commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Spain’s latest forecasts are “a bit optimistic”. The European Commission asked Spain to draw up a new budget programme.
The commission forecast Madrid would record a public deficit of 4.5 percent of gross domestic product this year and 3.5 percent in 2016 — still above the three-percent limit set in EU treaties.
