CdM | The debt of Spanish public enterprises that do not form part of the general government sector and are therefore not included in the EDP debt stood at 2.8% of GDP at the end of 2023, the same level as the previous year, according to data from the Bank of Spain.
In nominal terms, the variation represented an increase of €3 billion, to €40,657.2 million, and was mainly concentrated in public enterprises controlled by the central government, whose balance reached €34.2 billion.
The debt balances of the public corporations controlled by the regional and local governments were lower: €4.2 billion and €2.3 billion, respectively, with an increase of €1.4 billion in the regional corporations with respect to 2022, while the balance of the public corporations controlled by the local governments remained at very similar levels to those of the previous year.
For an international comparison, the latest available information published by Eurostat is for the year 2022 and presents methodological differences with respect to that released by the Bank of Spain, since the Eurostat data includes, in addition to the figures already mentioned, the debt of other units, such as the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (Official Credit Institution) or the Compañía Española de Seguros de Crédito a la Exportación, S.A. (Spanish Export Credit Insurance Company), explained the Spanish agency.
Taking the above into account, the debt of Spanish public companies was 4.2% of GDP that year, the lowest ratio in any EU country and much lower than that of Germany (88.4%), France (67.5%) and Italy (63.8%) in 2022.
