Spain registers bigger-than-expected deficit miss in 2015
By Carlos Ruano and Sarah White
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain missed its public deficit target for 2015 by far more than the European Commission and many analysts had expected, in spite an economic rebound and assurances from the acting government that the slippage would be smaller.
The overall deficit stood at 56.6 billion euros (45 billion pounds) last year, or at 5.24 percent of economic output, according to Reuters calculations from data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) on Thursday.
Minus financial aid paid to state-rescued banks, the 2015 deficit came in at 5.18 percent, far in excess of the target of 4.2 percent agreed with the European Commission, which has been warning for several months now that Spain was likely to miss its goals for 2015 and 2016.
The government is due to confirm the final figures later on Thursday.
The overshoot raises the pressure on Spain's acting government to persuade Brussels it can keep spending in check at a time of political uncertainty. Parties on the right and left have been unable to form a coalition to govern since an inconclusive election on Dec. 20.
Spanish officials had already suggested in recent weeks that overspending in the country's autonomous regions and a bigger-than-expected gap in social security revenues would likely nudge the deficit higher.
But caretaker Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, of the centre-right People's Party (PP), had said in February that it would come in at 4.5 percent, lower than the latest Commission forecast of 4.8 percent.
That came after months of assurances that Spain would at least come close to meeting its goal of 4.2 percent, in the run-up to the December election.
Spain has whittled down the deficit since a financial crisis, after the PP wielded deep spending cuts to keep its accounts in check. The government has struggled to keep within yearly limits established by Brussels, however.
The Commission is already warning that 2016's deficit goal of 2.8 percent will be missed without further adjustments to Spain's budget.
(Editing by Julien Toyer/Jeremy Gaunt)
