Public investment in Spain falls by 90 per cent in three years
Tuesday, February 25, 2014 @ 9:20 AM
GOVERNMENT investment in public works and services has plummeted by 90 per cent in the last three years due to funding cuts, according to the Organisation for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD).
Expenditure on infrastructure and scientific research – which includes medical investigation – went up by 3.6 per cent on average every year between 2002 and 2007, and in 2006 reached over 46 billion euros, rising to 46.7 billion by 2009.
But in 2013, spending in these areas nosedived to just eight billion.
Investment in medical research went down by 7.22 per cent, following the trend of the previous year, 2012, says the Higher Centre for Scientific Investigation, which was nearly facing closure last year due to lack of funding, and the Prince Felipe Investigation Centre in Valencia, which was forced to make 114 scientists redundant in 2012.
Spain, with its change in government and policies, went from sustaining its investment levels in 2010 with measures such as the so-called Plan E for building local infrastructure, to suffering a fall in this expenditure of 13 per cent by the end of the year, by 36 per cent in 2011 and then by 48 per cent in 2012, according to European think-tank Bruegel.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com