{"id":101,"date":"2012-04-02T12:20:54","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T12:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/?p=101"},"modified":"2012-04-02T12:20:54","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T12:20:54","slug":"spain-budget-cuts-to-total-27bn-euros-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/?p=101","title":{"rendered":"Spain budget: Cuts to total 27bn Euros this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spain is cutting 27bn euros ($36bn; \u00a322.5bn) from its budget this year as part of one of the toughest austerity drives in its history.<\/p>\n

Changes will include freezing public sector workers’ salaries and reducing departmental budgets by 16.9%.<\/p>\n

The government says it will raise 12.3bn euros this year, aided by an increase in tax for large companies.<\/p>\n

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said the nation was in an “extreme situation”.<\/p>\n

“Our top priority is to clean up public accounts,” she said.<\/p>\n

“This is a moment that demands serious efforts to reduce spending but also structural reforms to cause the economy to grow and create jobs.”<\/p>\n

But economists are questioning whether the cuts will be enough to satisfy Spain’s European partners.<\/p>\n

‘Insufficient’ cuts<\/p>\n

Last month Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy agreed with the European Commission to reduce Spain’s deficit to 5.3% of GDP in 2012.<\/p>\n

A government minister said Spain needed to tighten up its finances to meet EU targets for reducing deficits without stifling economic growth and job creation.<\/p>\n

That is the challenge.<\/p>\n

Privately some in government accept these calculations involve a risk.<\/p>\n

The economy is in recession and some predict it will shrink by around 2% this year – even before these savings are made.<\/p>\n

The fear is that Spain could be tipped into a downward spiral.<\/p>\n

Javier Diaz Gimenez, professor of economics at IESE Business School in Madrid, said: “This [budget] seems to be non-credible.<\/p>\n

“They will not be making the 5.3% target agreed with Brussels, because the cuts are insufficient given the growth forecast,” he told BBC News.<\/p>\n

According to official forecasts the Spanish economy will shrink by 1.7% this year.<\/p>\n

Under the 2012 budget the unemployed will see their benefits maintained and pensions will continue to rise.<\/p>\n

Consumers have also been spared some pain as VAT will remain at its current level.<\/p>\n

But they can expect higher fuel bills as Energy Minister Jose Manuel Soria announced a rise in tax on electricity and gas from 1 April.<\/p>\n

The budget will go before Parliament on Tuesday and is expected to be formally passed in June.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said "serious efforts" were needed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spain is cutting 27bn euros ($36bn; \u00a322.5bn) from its budget this year as part of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","elegant-magazine-featured":"","elegant-magazine-medium":"","elegant-magazine-medium-small":"","elegant-magazine-thumbnail-small":""},"author_info":{"info":["Imo Trumpeta"]},"category_info":"Uncategorized<\/a>","tag_info":"Uncategorized","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}