Spanish treasury to auction €242.370bn in 2014

The Spanish Treasury will auction a total of 242.370 billion euros (328.919 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, General Secretary of the Spanish Treasury Inigo Fernandez de Mesa said on Wednesday. Fernandez de Mesa, who made this announcement at a press conference to explain the 2014 strategy of the treasury, told reporters that the treasury will auction a total of 133.280 billion euros of medium and long term debt and 109.090 billion euros of short term debt. The total amount of 242.370 billion euros is higher than that of 2013, when the Spanish Treasury placed 236.695 billion euros of debt on the market, exceeding predictions of selling up to 230.000 billion euros. Fernandez de Mesa said that markets had returned to normality in 2013 which would allow Spain to face 2014 financial needs, pointing out that financing costs were "historically low". Meanwhile, Fernandez de Mesa stated that Spain's public debt might finish 2013 below the government's prediction of 94.2 percent of GDP, adding that it will stabilize at 100 percent in 2015 or 2016. The debt of Spanish public administrations reached 954.863 billion euros in the third quarter, representing 93.4 percent of the country's GDP, according to the Bank of Spain, a figure closed to the 94.2 percent predicted by the government. (1 euro = 1.36 U.S. dollars)