Malaga was the Andalusian province that reduced debt the most during the last council term

Malaga province's municipalities owed nearly 580 million euros at the end of 2022, around 21% less than four years earlier - but some towns on the Costa del Sol achieved signifacntly better figures

Cristina Vallejo

Tuesday, 22 August 2023, 15:25

Councils across Malaga have reduced the most municipal debt than any other Andalusian province in the past four years, according to new data.

In Spain, the municipal leverage has gone from almost 21 billion euros at the end of 2018, to 17.6 billion in December 2022, a 16% cut, according to the Ministry of Finance. The figures showed that councils in the province of Malaga have been more successful in reducing their debt: slashing it by 21%, from 733.6 million to 580 million.

No other Andalusian province has managed to reduce its debt by a similar margin. In the region as a whole, the reduction was just 2.5% (to 5,420 million euros). However, debt accumulation increased in the past four years in Cadiz and Jaén, by 11% and 9%, respectively.

According to the figures, Cadiz municipalities are the most indebted in Andalucía, with a total of 2,233 million euros. They are followed by Jaén (704 million euros), Malaga, and then Seville (almost 509 million euros). Andalucía was, at the end of 2022, the region with the highest municipal debt, followed by the Community of Madrid (3,407 million euros accumulated by its local councils). The third province with the highest debt was Cadiz (after Madrid and Barcelona), while Malaga was in eighth position.

Debt annihilation

A total of 16 municipalities in Malaga have been able to reduce their debt to zero. Benamargosa, which in December 2018 owed 839,000 euros, now has no remaining debt. Almogía has managed to cancel its 759,000 euros of debt, while Fuente de Piedra, cleared 500,000 euros and Montejaque, more than 350,000.

Among the larger municipalities of Malaga, Fuengirola is the one that has reduced its debt the most in the last four years, slashing it from 348,000 euros to barely 5,000 euros, that is, more than 98%. Benalmádena, a municipality with a debt of just over 38 million euros at the end of 2018, owes just under 5 million euros four years later, a reduction of 87%.

Ronda has also significantly reduced its debt in the past four years. At the end of 2022 it owed 2.68 million euros, 65% less than in December 2018, when its financial commitments exceeded 7.75 million euros.

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