MADRID: Spain is cutting its public deficit by 8 billion euros (8.99 billion U.S. dollars), according to Spain’s acting Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro.
He said the fiscal adjustment was required by the European Union(EU) in order to give the country one year more to reduce its public deficit to below 3 percent of GDP.
“The European Commission requires an adjustment that we are already doing,” Montoro said, adding last year the public deficit was decreased from 5.8 percent to 5 percent.
The figure was above the deficit target of 4.2 percent previously agreed with Brussels. The European Commission gave Spain one year more to reduce the deficit below 3 percent and will decide after Spain’s general elections on June 26 whether Spain should pay a fine for not meeting the deficit target.
Montoro said he believed the Commission would not fine Spain, as the country “is loyal and convinced of fiscal stability.”
According to the European Commission, 2016 deficit target should be at 3.7 percent instead of the previously agreed 2.8 percent, and in 2017 the deficit should be at 2.5 percent. In exchange, Brussels asked for public deficit reductions of 8 billion euros between 2016 and 2017.
