New year, old debt

No one would miss the opportunity to take out a loan. An average citizen can afford to borrow some money if needed, while on a national scale, loans can total billions. Generally, there is no connection between the size of a country and the size of its foreign debt. More often than not, the relatively small state carries huge debt burden. Spain, for example, has to pay €954.9 billion in arrears. According to the analysts, by September 2013, this sum was equal to 93.4% of GDP. The press secretary of the Bank of Spain confirmed this information. Comparing to the last year, the public debt edged up by 16.73%. The lion’s share of the money (81.3% of GDP) was spent on the central government. Recently, this amount has increased by 16.73%. The local authorities’ account is in credit as well. Their portion is estimated at €196.96 billion of the whole cake. Among the autonomous regions whose total debt climbed by 17% Madrid, Valencia, and Catalonia owe the most. No forecasts on the Spain’s solvency have been provided yet as well as how long it will take to pay off.