Spain managed to reduce the deficit to 4.8% of GDP, which is equivalent to 81,521 million euros, in 2022. They were two tenths below the commitment reached with Brussels, which has been fulfilled for the third consecutive year. As a result of this discipline and the increase in collection, the Government now has a fiscal margin of 3,000 million to expand aid to combat inflation in a new decree that, according to Treasury sources, will be approved at the end of June.
In the last two years, the public deficit has gone from 10% in 2020, when the pandemic broke out, to the aforementioned 4.8%. In 2022, it was the central administration, which remained at 3.1%, who assumed the largest reduction, along with Social Security, which closed the year at 0.5%. On the other hand, the autonomous communities, with a final deficit of 1.1%, and local corporations, with 0.1%, left the budget balance coinciding with the proximity of the elections on May 28.
Catalonia was one of the autonomous regions that increased its gap between income and expenditure to 1.51% of GDP, above the recommendation, which was to maintain a deficit of less than 1%. The data contrasts with that of 2021, when the deficit was 0.39%; then the recommendation had been 1%.
While waiting to define the new fiscal rules, the Government considers that it is in a position to place the deficit at 3% in 2025. For 2023 the forecast is 3.9%.
This path of reduction in 2022 was possible thanks in large part to a tax collection that broke records for the second consecutive year. There were 255,463 million in tax revenue, which represents a growth of 14.4% compared to 2021.
The Minister of Finance, MarÃa Jesús Montero, stressed that the creation of employment, the improvement in business profits and the increase in consumption made these figures possible. IRPF and Companies were the taxes that increased the most, above VAT, which, according to the Treasury, explains why inflation is behind barely a third of the increase in collection.
