New record for the Treasury of Madrid, and this time it's the public debt. The total value of the Spanish state's liabilities in the second quarter of 2012 exceeded 800 billion euros for the first time in history. This was revealed by the Banco de España. The relative debt increased to 75,9% of the gross domestic product, the highest since 1913 according to the historical series reconstructed by the International Monetary Fund. In the last year, the total public debt grew by 14% in the last 12 months and by 3,8% in the last quarter to 804,388 billion euros.
And central government debt is growing faster than local government debt. In fact, Madrid has 617,5 billion, 58,3% of GDP, which increased by 2,6 points in the last quarter. While the increase in local government debt was 0,4 points from 13,8% to 14,2% of GDP at 150,5 billion. In short, in the last year the central administration owes 8 of the 9,2 percentage points of the GDP increase in public debt.
Catalonia is the most indebted region: it closed the second quarter with a debt of 43,9 billion euros, 22% of its GDP. It is an increase of 1,5 billion in the last quarter and of 3,8 billion in one year, a 9,6%. And thus distances itself from the region of Valencia, the second most indebted region, which however in the last three months has managed to reduce its debt reaching 20,8% of its GDP.
Both have asked the central government for help through a Fund created specifically to help the autonomous communities and which has an endowment of 18 billion euros. The most virtuous region remains Madrid, with 9,1% of its GDP at 17,1 billion.
However Cristobal Montoro, the minister of public affairs, assured that the autonomous communities "are on the right path to achieve the set goals".
