Spain’s regional and local administrations have “hidden” debt, not included in the official accounts, amounting to about 26.4 billion euros ($37 billion), according to research by Freemarket Corporate Intelligence, a consulting firm, the Financial Times reported.
The latest figures from the Bank of Spain show that the country’s 17 autonomous regions have almost doubled their public debt, to 115 billion euros, since 2008, while municipal and provincial debt has risen to 35 billion euros and central government debt stands at 488 billion euros, the newspaper said.
However, public companies owned by local and regional governments also have substantial debt, and in many cases it doesn’t have to be included in the figures under European Union guidelines, the FT reported.
This “hidden” debt is likely to be revealed by new regional and local administrations to be elected on May 22, the newspaper said.
Freemarket Corporate Intelligence is run by Lorenzo Bernaldo de Quiros, a critic of Spain’s devolved system of government, the FT added.
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