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Spain’s president Pedro Sanchez<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuters
Spain’s president Pedro Sanchez<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By AFP<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MADRID
Petroleumworld 11 25 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spain’s fragmented parliament passed the government’s 2022 budget on Thursday, boosting the stability of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority coalition government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers voted 188-158 in favour of the budget, which includes a record 240 billion euros ($340 billion) in spending next year as the government seeks to spur activity in an economy badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It includes 27.6 billion euros from the European Union’s economic recovery fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spain is one of the main beneficiaries of the fund, with the country set to collect a total of 140 billion in grants and loans from it over six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a tweet sent just after the budget was approved, Sanchez said the spending plan will \u00abspur the recovery and the modernisation of our country\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The approval of the new budget secures the survival of government until the end of its mandate in late 2023 since if Sanchez’s administration lacks support for a budget next year, it can extend the 2022 spending plan for another year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By contrast neighbouring Portugal will hold early elections on January 30 after parliament earlier this month rejected the minority Socialist government’s 2022 budget bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sanchez’s Socialists and its junior coalition partners, hard left party Podemos, hold only 155 of the 350 seats in Spain’s highly fragmented parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the government struck deals with smaller, regional parties to secure their support for the budget, including one with Catalan separatist party ERC that sets a quota for regional languages on streaming platforms like Netflix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sanchez is betting the expansive budget will stoke an economic rebound that has lost some momentum due to weak domestic consumption and a slower than expected recovery in its key tourism sector, and prop up his approval ratings which have dipped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the measures financed by the budget is a payment of 400 euros to all those who turn 18 to spend on cultural activities, and a monthly rent subsidy of 250 euros for low-income youths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Civil servants will get a 2.0 percent pay increase while old-age pensions will be increased in line with inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The budget sees Spain’s public deficit to fall to the equivalent of 5.0 percent of Spain’s economic output next year, down from 8.4 percent in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it is based on a prediction that Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP) will expand by 7.0 percent next year, a forecast many analysts say is unrealistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spain’s economy contracted 10.8 percent in 2020, one of the worst results among industrialised countries, as pandemic travel restrictions crippled its tourism sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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