Spanish administrations are seldom capable of fully executing the investments they budget for. Neither does the Generalitat. In the first nine months of the year, the government of Pere Aragonès has only executed 32.1% of the investments planned in its final budget for this year without taking into account public companies or resources derived from European Next Generation funds.
The figure for the first three quarters of the current year is slightly lower than the 35.7% of last year. The comparisons worsen when the investments financed with European Next Generation funds are incorporated into the analysis: in this case, the execution falls to 21.3% when there are only three months left to end the year.
Sources from the Department of Economy said that resources from European funds were incorporated into this year’s budgets, although they can be executed over the next few years. The same sources said that this year’s investments are highly influenced by the aforementioned European resources, while last year there was hardly any Next Generation and, furthermore, it was an extended budget.
The Department of Economy that Natàlia Mas now directs reminds that another way of analyzing the execution is to put it in relation to the initial budget and not to the final one, which is the one that is expanded depending on the arrival of more resources. In that case, the Government effectively spent 26% of the initial budget. If European funds are deducted from the initial budget, 45% of execution is reached.
With the current figures and seeing the evolution of last year, it is practically impossible for the public accounts to be fulfilled in the case of investments. Last year, after the first 9 months, the aforementioned 35.7% was executed, which ended up becoming 71% at the end of the year. Now the number of partial execution is lower.
The positive thing is that the volume of investment in absolute value is greater despite the fact that the partial execution is lower. It is normal that year after year the investment grows just as the budget increases. According to official data from the Generalitat, until September 351 million were spent compared to 319 in the same period last year. When the money spent from European funds is counted, real spending only grows by 10 million, to 361 million.
