Why The Pain In Spain Will Get Worse

Even as Spain imposes austerity measures to slash its deficit, a fiscal crisis is brewing in the country's 17 regions, which spend almost double what the national government does. After lavishing funds on everything from theme parks to orchestras during a decade-long boom, Spain's local and regional governments have nearly $200 billion in debt, says Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Regional governments have agreed to a 5 per cent reduction in salaries and a promise to replace only 10 per cent of retiring employees. Yet "they may have to cut deeper," says Standard & Poor's analyst Myriam Fernandez de Heredia. With Spain's economy forecast to shrink 0.3 per cent this year, she warns that tax revenues may fall short of projections:
 

• Spain's regional and local governments are turning to the debt markets to raise some $57 billion this year, far more than their counterparts in any European country except Germany.
   
• While German states can borrow cheaply, thanks to their top-notch credit ratings, at least 12 of Spain's regions have suffered recent downgrades.
   
• Investors now demand 3.3 per cent for Catalonia's 12-month debt, more than a full percentage point higher than what they'll accept for Spain's sovereign bills; that's about triple the difference in 2007.
  
  More than most European countries, Spain has ceded power to regional governments. They finance most education and health care as well as other social initiatives:
   
• Spending on such programs has increased even as regional tax revenues have shrivelled by almost 9 per cent over the past two years.
   
• During the boom, regions spent lavishly on projects such as Terra Mitica, a theme park in the Valencia region that features replicas of the Minotaur's labyrinth and an Egyptian pyramid.
   
• The park, 22 per cent owned by the regional government, doesn't disclose its finances, but opposition politicians say it has lost $350 million since opening in 2000.
  
  Adding to their budget woes, regions have created public companies and foundations to finance everything from stadiums to medical research:
   
• The number of such entities has grown to more than 2,000 from about 500 over the past decade.
   
• Andalusia, one of Spain's poorest regions, spends $3.9 million a year on a foundation to promote "peace, dialogue, and reconciliation through music."
  
  Meanwhile, Madrid's regional government has an agency that provides services to people from the capital who are living abroad.
  
  Source: Carol Matlack and Emma Ross-Thomas, Why the Pain in Spain Will Get Worse, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, August 1, 2010.
  
  For text: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_31/b4189014863113.htm?chan=magazine+channel_news+-+global+economics
  
  For more on International Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=26
  
  First published by the National Center for Policy Analysis, United States
  
  FMF Policy Bulletin/ 10 August 2010