Spain worries Brussels. Last Friday, Iberian Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that Madrid will fail to meet the goals budget set for 2012 by the previous government of Luis Zapatero: the GDP deficit ratio will not drop to 4,4%. At most, 5,8% will be reached. A “serious and grave” change of focus, according to Amadeu Altafaj, spokesman for the vice president of the European Commission and EU head of economic affairs, Olli Rehn.
"We need to understand if it is a temporary or structural fact – said Altafaj – and what we intend to do about 2012″. Only once Eurostat, in April, has analyzed the data from Spain "will the European Commission make its analysis and give its recommendations".
However, Altafaj recalled that on these issues “the Commission's position remains unchanged: we believe that the full implementation" of the objectives on public finances "is a milestone in the response to the crisis, especially in the countries under market observation".
On the other hand, despite the more negative trend than expected for the current year - caused by the worsening data on GDP -, Rajoy has kept unchanged the target of 3% for the deficit-GDP in 2013. The European Council however, it did not accept Spain's request to delay the adoption of a new budget package.
Altafaj specified today that Spain is not comparable to Greece in 2009-2010 as regards the reliability of its budget data, because it did not have a similar credibility problem. Instead “what we note is that until last November we were told that Spain could go a little beyond the 2011 deficit-GDP target of 6%, but still between 6 and 7%. But then in December we were notified of a deviation that could have been 2 percentage points, and a few days ago 2,5 percentage points ”.
At this point, “we need to know the origin of this deviation and what measures are to be taken in 2012 to remedy this situation. Once we have clarity on the figures, the commission will make its analysis and if necessary its recommendations to the Council".
