Secretary of Finances denies debt may reach 8 billion Euros

The Secretary of Finances has refuted the news published in the Publico (below) saying that the 2 billion in commercial debt was included in the 6328 million Euros.

Source: Publico newspaper, 1-3-2012

With the reevaluation of the commercial debt to 2 billion Euro, the region’s overall public debt reaches 8 billion Euros, as the Público had predicted back in August. According to the General Inspectorate of Finance’s September 2011 diagnosis of the region’s debt, Madeira’s debt at the end of July 2011 reached 6328 million Euros without including the regional government’s indirect debt to various entities, to the value of 1255 million Euros.

These 6328 million Euros included 1031 million of direct public debt; 2719 of financial debt; 2058 million of administrative debt and 520 million of commercial debt. Since this last value is now held to be 2000 million, as the Secretary of Finances revealed to the Publico, the global debt may now reach 8 billion Euros, or may even far exceed this number if the concession of guarantees and the contracting of loans by various public entities are taken into account.