Spain to fail again for fifth consecutive year to meet EU deficit target

According to the calculations by the European Commission, Spain is set to fail for the fifth consecutive year to meet the European Union’s deficit target.  The European Commissioners have admitted that Spain’s public deficit would improve in 2017 and would decline to 3.2 percent, however, that would mean the country would fail for the fifth consecutive year to meet the deficit target of 3.1 percent.

One of the main reasons behind Spain’s decline in deficits has been growth. The European Commission upgraded the Spanish GDP outlook from 2.3 percent to 2.8 percent and it feels that Spain would be able to meet the criteria in 2018. The report said: “Now in its fourth year of expansion, Spain continues to grow faster than the euro area average, and the volume of GDP is expected to surpass its pre-crisis peak this year.” According to the report, the Spanish economy is set to grow faster than other member states in 2017 at 2.8 percent; however, it projects that the growth would decline from 2.8 percent to 2.4 percent in 2018.

However, Spain’s problem is neither growth nor the deficits; its biggest problem is unemployment, which is still hovering around 18 percent, even after 5 years of the European debt crisis of 2011/12.