The amount of public debt “Officer” reached 1.66 billion euros At the end of May this year, according to data from the Bank of Spain. It represents 102.3% of GDP, something less in the same month of the previous year, but a little more than 103.5% with which it ended 2024. Those data, however, do not reflect all the reality and magnitude of the public liabilities that Spain drags.
There are several ways to measure debt, but above all three: the one calculated according to the call Excessive deficit protocol (PDE), which is the measurement used by the European Commission; the one that arises from the consolidation between all accounts/debts of the different administrations – central, regional and local, especially – and, finally, which reflects the total debt and, therefore real, of all public administrations.
In the PRIMER CASE, at the end of 2024, the debt was 1.62 billion euros; in the second, 1.76 billion and in the last, 2,154 billion. They are the data collected, commented and analyzed in a brief report, published in the Economic Bulletin of the Bank of Spain, entitled “The evolution of the public debt in Spain” and prepared by Javier Arribas-Vela, María Isabel Laporta-Corbera and Blanca García-Moral, all of them members of the Statistics Department of the institution governing José Luis Escrivá.
There is another way to measure the magnitude of the public debt of a country. It consists of calculating the percentage of the GDP it represents. In the case of Spain, throughout 2024, that percentage was reduced by 3.3 points, from 105.1% to 101.8%, although it has risen again in the first months of 2025, always according to the criteria of the excessive deficit protocol.
The authors of the report explain, however, that “the reduction of the ratio by 3.3 percentage points was mainly due to economic growth.” As well as clarify, the percentage – the ratio – depends on «the variation of the nominal GDP since its increase – decrease – automatically generates a reduction – increment – of the debt ratio for the denominator effect». Therefore, Arribas-Vela, Laporta-Corbera and García-Moral continue, “the decrease in 3.3 percentage points of the public debt radius is explained, in the first place, by the contribution of the nominal GDP, which reduced the ratio at 6.2 percentage points (pp) of GDP –9.1 percentage points the previous year–; Secondly, by the public deficit, which increased the percentage, and due to the deficit-debt adjustment, which decreased the ratio by 0.3 percentage points of the national GDP.
The report, which confirms the decrease in the ratio on GDP of public administrations according to the PDE in 2024, confirming the trend initiated in 2021, after the increases due to the pandemic, also addresses the situation of the so -called “total liabilities of public administrations.”
They are not secret data, not even hidden, but they are not usually paid attention. In addition to the debt according to the PDE other debts such as insurance systems, pensions and guarantees, commercial credits and other accounts pending payment. Other Public Administrations are also added. Everything appears in the so -called financial accounts of the Spanish economy (CFEE), which the Bank of Spain elaborates quarterly.
In 2024, according to the data analyzed by the authors of the study, the liabilitiess – of debt– of all public administrations reached 2,154 billion euros and “they were reduced by 2.3 percentage points compared to the previous year, up to 135.4% of GDP, compared to 107.6% of the Euro area.” They also explain that “this reduction is mainly explained by the effect of GDP, since the variation of the numerator was positive.” The 2,154 billion would be the total debt of public administrations, more or less half billion more than according to the PDE.
Nevertheless, Once the debts of some Spanish administrations with other administrations have been taken into account – especially those of the Autonomous Communities and Social Security with the central state -, the consolidated figure is reduced to 1,726 billion euros, “108.5% of GDP, but still above the added level of the Euro area, of 93.8%,” the statistical experts of the Bank of Spain write. The figure of 1,726 billion euros is, on the other hand, some more than 100,000 million additional that the accounts reflect according to the European Union criteria.
The nuance is very important. It is possible, to some extent, to look the other way, in the case of total debt data, because although everything must be paid, there is an important part that is between public administrations and the final result, despite the problems that it holds should be zero and it would already be discussed who pays the interests. However, the difference between what the European Union is taken into account and the consolidated debt is not compensated with anything and adds 100,000 million to the figures that are handled regularly in debt.
The origin of these immense holes has no mystery and originates from the successive deficits accumulated by public administrations. Arribas-Vela, Laporta-Corbera and García Moral include in their study a very revealing picture of the evolution of the gross debt of the public administrations in the 2019-2024 period that, in this case, coincides with the time of the governments of Pedro Sánchez, although the experts do not make any type of political reference on the central, autonomous and local authorities responsible, in the last case, and each in different proportion.
The aforementioned picture indicates that, between 2019 and 2024the debt, according to the excessive deficit protocol, increased by 411,310 million euros, Figure only somewhat higher than the deficit – fundamentals – accumulated by public administrations in the same period, which was 398,000 million euros.
There are no secrets, the debt is a direct consequence of the deficits and can be reduced in percentage terms of GDP if the economy grows, but will never descend in absolute terms if the expenses exceed income.
The authors of the report also refer, to update the data, to the Bank of Spain website, which permanently refreshes the information. The latest figures indicate that liabilities in circulation – due – collected in the CFE at the end of the first quarter of 2025 had promoted up to 2.17 billion euros, That is, a 134.67% of GDP estimated 1,611 billion.
Of course, the debt according to the PDE was 1.66 billion, while there is no definitive consolidation data, although a first estimate points to 353,023 million crossed debts between administrations.
Finally, the report explains that at the end of 2024, “the debt with a residual term of less than one year, understood as the one that expires within a period of less than 12 months, represented 13.9% of the total.”
That means that Spain needs to borrow from about 225,000 million euros only to meet the expiration of the debt, Something that is paid with the issuance of more debt. That is, that total is fattened that, added everything, is 2.17 billion euros. A barbarity.