Catalonia will receive 4,793 million from the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) during the first three months of 2023, according to the agreement reached yesterday at the Government Delegate Commission for Economic Affairs (CDGAE). Almost half of the resources of this extraordinary financing mechanism will go to the community chaired by Pere Aragonès in this initial distribution.
The highest economic body of the Government, below the Council of Ministers, agreed to distribute between January and March of next year a total of 10,620.23 million euros charged to the Financing Fund for Autonomous Communities. Most of them, 10,416.4 million will go to the FLA and 203.8 million will go to the Financial Facility (FF) compartment.
The 4,793 million for Catalonia far exceeds the financing that other autonomies will receive, such as Valencia, to which 2,670 million have corresponded; Castilla-La Mancha, with 880 million; Aragon, 769 million; Balearic Islands, 485 million; Murcia, 234 million; Cantabria, 162 million; Extremadura, 123 million; and La Rioja, which will have access to 35 million. This agreement does not include an allocation for Madrid, Galicia, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Castilla y León, Navarra and the Basque Country because they have not requested financing from the FLA.
The Generalitat de Catalunya plans to request a total of 11,822 million euros from the Treasury throughout 2023 in charge of the aforementioned liquidity fund, slightly less than the 12,447 million of 2022. This is stated in the document sent to investors published a few days ago. Most of this amount will be used to face debt amortizations.
The FLA was created a decade ago now by the Government of Mariano Rajoy. His minister, Cristóbal Montoro, presented this mechanism that has been a breath of fresh air for Catalan finances, the main beneficiaries of it. The aid served the autonomies to have liquidity within their reach at a time of crisis and closing of the financial markets.
The Generalitat details investors that the accumulated debt is 84,486 million euros until June 2022, 69,438 million of them correspond to liquidity mechanisms. In other words, Catalonia will have to return to the State a total of 82.2% of that debt.
