National
Central Government agrees spending boost for Cataluña
By h.b.
Sep 18, 2007 - 8:18 AM

The Government has announced an increase in investment in Cataluña of 826 million €. Central and regional governments have reached an agreement to increase the state spend in the region to 4.02 billion € in the budgets for 2007, and in this way the Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, considers that he has met the requirements of the new Catalan Statute.

The Spanish State will now invest the GDP generated Cataluña back in the region over the next seven years and that means 18.8% of the Gross Domestic Product.

The agreement is announced the day after the Prime Minister was in the region and comes thanks to the meeting on Monday in Madrid between the Minister for the Economy and Tax, Pedro Solbes and the Catalan Councillor for the Economy, Antoni Castells.

Meanwhile it has been announced that the Governor of the Bank of Spain, Fernández Ordóñez, will make a statement to Congress on the current financial crisis later today.