National debt per Spaniard with a job, including the ECB Target2 liabilities, is now €127,000 each
The last time there were 20 million Spaniards with a job, in 2008, that figure was €32,000. Governments have quadrupled it.
At the end of July on Twitter, I had a little look at the national debt per Spaniard with a job, with some figures from the INE (National Statistics Institute), but now we have that clarification about the Target2 liability from the Bank of Spain yesterday, we can also have a look at how much Spain owes the world per Spanaird with a job depending on whether you prefer the €1.5 trillion, €2 trillion or €2.5 trillion figure. (The Bank of Spain, by the way, this morning declined by email to further clarify or add comments about Draghi's 2017 letter regarding the reality of the Target2 liabilities with the ECB).
Nominal GDP per employed Spaniard has increased, a bit, over the past fifteen years, from around €47,000 a year to around €59,000 a year but unfortunately the debt lines, whichever version you choose, have gone up more.
The European excessive deficit procedure version (pink line on the graph), which is the one most quoted in headlines and beloved of politicians making statements, is now up to some €72,000 a year after the Covid pandemic, and that historic global healthcare emergency diversion can clearly be seen on the graph. It also seems as if that most talked about version is the one that politicians and bureaucrats have been accounting for: between Rajoy starting to take control of the last crisis in 2012 and the Covid pandemic, the GDP and excessive deficit procedure debt lines appear to run hand-in-hand.
What kept rising, far beyond the most beloved official figure, were the "current liabilities" version of the national debt from the Bank of Spain and the even bigger number that adds on Spain's Target2 liabilities at the ECB. Current liabilities debt per Spaniard with a job is up over €102,000 (red line) and the version that includes Target2 at €127,000 (dark red line).
There are currently about 20 million Spaniards with a job (out of about 47 million in total). The last time this many citizens were employed, in 2008, just as we were going into the last great economic crisis, those debt numbers were €22,000, €30,000 or €32,000. Much less than now, of course, and, more importantly, all well below the €48,000 GDP per employed Spaniard figure. The numbers have increased since 2008 by 221%, 242% and 304% respectively. I can't see there being much chance 20 million people in Spain have each got €100,000 to spare to fix the national debt today.
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