The public debt of the Community of the Canary Islands stood at the end of the first quarter of the year at 14.9% of its gross domestic product (GDP), seven tenths above a year earlier, although it remains as one of the lowest in Spain in comparative terms.
Only the Foral Community of Navarra, with a rate of 13.5%, and the Basque Country and the Community of Madrid, with 14.2% in both cases, bear less debt than the Canary Islands.
In absolute terms, the public debt of the Canary Islands has grown in the last year from 6,222 million euros in March 2022 to 7,178 million in March of this year.
The debt of all public administrations decreased in the first quarter of the year to 113% of GDP, 0.2 points less than at the end of 2022 and 4.4 points lower than a year ago, after marking a new record amount of 1,535,262 million euros.
According to data published this Thursday by the Bank of Spain, the central administration reduced its debt to 102.1% of GDP, 0.3 points less than at the end of 2022 and 3.4 points less than a year ago, although with a record amount of 1.39 trillion.
The autonomous communities decreased their debt to 23.7% of GDP, 0.2 points less in quarterly comparison and 1.3 points less in annual terms, up to a record amount of 322,211 million.
On the contrary, local corporations, with a debt of 23,032 million, are almost half of the record marked in 2012, although they maintain the stable ratio at 1.7% of GDP, only one tenth below that registered a year ago.
The administrations of the Social Security maintained their debt almost without changes at 106,172 million, equivalent to 7.8% of GDP, 0.2 points less than the previous quarter and than a year ago.
The most indebted autonomous community continues to be the Valencian Community, with a debt of 43.7% of its regional GDP, although it has decreased 0.7 points in the quarter and 2.2 points in a year.
It is followed by Catalonia (33.1% of its GDP), Castilla-La Mancha (32.7% of its GDP) and Murcia (31.7% of its GDP).
All the autonomies have decreased their debt in the last year, except the Canary Islands, where it has risen from 14.2 to 14.9% of its GDP.
However, the Canary Islands is the fourth least indebted community together with Madrid and the Basque Country (both with 14.2% of their respective regional GDP), and Navarra (13.5% of its GDP).
By amount, Catalonia is at the head with 85,456 million of debt, followed by the Valencian Community with 55,439 million, in both cases historical maximums.
Of the municipalities with more than 300,000 inhabitants, the highest debt continues to be for Madrid, with 1,920 million, in line with that of a year ago, but well below the record marked in 2012 in about 8,000 million.
Behind it is Barcelona with 1,118 million, Zaragoza with 623 million, Malaga with 272 million, Seville with 251 million, Murcia with 241 million, Valencia with 221 million, Cordoba with 180 million, Palma with 168 million and Valladolid with 162 million.
Below are Bilbao with 31 million, Las Palmas with one million and Alicante below one million euros with an unspecified figure.
