Andalusia and Catalonia will be the communities that will receive the most investment funds of the State through the General Budgets, well above the Community of Madrid and also the Valencian Community. So much so that the Government will inject 66% more funds in the first two territories than in the Madrid community.
Specifically, the territorial distribution of real investment in 2021 will amount to 2,146 million in Andalusia, while the figure in Catalonia will be 1,999 million, although 200 million more must be added to that figure in compliance with a judgment of the Constitutional Court that decreed an investment deficit in the region. The total at this point, therefore, amounts to 2,199 million, which, according to the Minister of Finance herself, MarÃa JesÃs Montero, would mean that Catalua will receive 18% of the state investment. That is, it would be, he added, in line with the Catalan GDP and would comply with the provisions of the Statute. The data for the Community of Madrid, on the other hand, remains at 1,250 million, which means that state investment in the leading regional economic power remains around 10% and suggests, at least, a disparity of criteria in the distribution of the figures.
But in addition, the PGE already carry out a pre-allocation of European funds, and at this point Andalusia and Catalonia are also the territories that benefit the most. The estimates made by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition for environmental policy and those of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda for housing show an additional injection for the Andalusian territory of 702 million, while for the Catalan community almost 600 million and in Madrid the figure is 461 million. In total, 2,848 million for Andalusia, 2,795 for Catalonia and 1,711 for the Community of Madrid. And the Valencia Community reaches 1,578 million.
The large items of the accounts
But beyond these figures, the Budgets that Montero has delivered to Congress today allocate almost 50% of their funds to pensions, unemployment and debt payment. Especially notable is the disbursement in benefits, which “amounts to 163,297 million euros, representing a growth of 3.2% compared to 2020.” This increase includes the Government’s decision to raise benefits by 0.9% in 2021, so that pensioners will not suffer the impact of the crisis on their pensions, since inflation is expected to be lower. But if this were not the case, the Executive undertakes to make “before April 1, 2022” a “single payment” that would complete possible purchasing losses. In this context, the rescue that the Budgets include for the Social Security, to which more than 31,000 million will be injected to ensure its viability
For unemployment, for its part, the State allocates more than 25,000 million. “With the endowments of this policy, which increased by 20.1% compared to 2020It is about offering adequate unemployment coverage, which responds to the protection needs of the unemployed in a context of crisis caused by the pandemic, “the document states. That is, the funds allocated to this item are they shoot at the large number of unemployed that will cause the severe crisis.
And for interest on the debt, the document contemplates 31,675 million, which is a very similar figure to last year and that raises the total data of the three items aimed at 219,984 million, 48.2% of the 456,073 million of budgeted expenses.
Macro table and taxes
In his presentation, Montero also highlighted the government’s macroeconomic forecasts, which include an economic slump of 11.2% this year and a rebound of 9.8% in 2021. Both data present significant uncertainties given that the pandemic It is evolving in a very negative way, to the point that many communities are decreeing perimeter closures and that will surely have a notable impact on growth. In this way, the fourth quarter could be very negative, in turn causing the beginning of the next year to also be worse than expected and, ultimately, further depressing the economy.
Even so, the Executive maintains these figures and maintains that “the intense recovery that the Spanish economy will experience during 2021 will be driven by domestic demand.” And he adds that next year there will be a “revitalization of employment”, a situation that not a few organizations question. In addition, it foresees that it will be able to reduce the deficit from the historic 11.3% this year to 7.7%.
To achieve this, the Treasury relies on the growth of the economy and the increase in income, but does not present any concrete measure to contain the deviation. In this increase in collection, the new tax figures will be an important part, among which are the Tasa Tobin and the Tasa Google, which will come into force in January and will contribute, according to the official estimate, 1.8 billion.
Also with the diesel tax, or at least that is what Montero wanted to convey after Ciudadanos affirmed that he had negotiated with the Government the suppression of this figure and recognized the minister herself that it is a point that it must be addressed with the PNV. Its impact, despite the fact that the Treasury maintains that it has no tax collection effort, reaches 450 million in 2021. The increase in VAT on sugary drinks, the tax on plastic containers, waste or the revision of insurance premiums that, in their entirety, make up a tax increase of 6,000 million that they undoubtedly have the middle class as the main affected.
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