The public resources that Catalonia receives under the financing system are equivalent to 87.9% of the Spanish average if purchasing parity is taken into account. With the same pension, in Catalonia you get fewer products or services because life is more expensive. “You don't buy the same thing with a pension or a salary in Catalonia as elsewhere,” explained the director of the studies service of the Chamber of Barcelona, Joan Ramon Rovira.
That is another way of analyzing the chronic “underfinancing” suffered by the Catalan community, according to the Chamber of Commerce. If the aforementioned cost of living is not taken into account, the community's resources are only 2% below average.
It is important to take into account the cost of living because it determines the well-being of society. Catalonia, despite being the fourth community that generates the most wealth (in terms of GDP per capita), occupies 12th place in the ranking of social progress. It is at the bottom of social welfare. Regarding the distribution of resources, it is the tenth community that receives the most, far from the positions it occupies when it comes to contributing to the common fund.
In the presentation of this report yesterday, the Chamber evaluated “positively the agreement for the transfer of Rodalies and the reduction of debt,” but asked “to continue working to reduce the chronic financing deficit that harms the competitiveness of companies and well-being.” social".
Another way to verify the underfinancing of Catalonia is by comparing the degree of execution of the State's investments. In the period 2015-2021, the Catalan community received 10.7% of the total regionalized investment, which places it below its weight both in population (16.2%) and in GDP (19.0%). On the other hand, in that same period the Community of Madrid took 16.6% of the total. The Chamber calculates that "if Catalonia had received from the central public sector a volume of investment proportional to its economic weight during this period, each year the average investment received would have been about 1,400 million more." The president of the Chamber, Josep Santacreu, said that the fiscal deficit is “drowning the goose that lays the golden eggs.”
