Spain to rethink Infrastructure spending

The Spanish government is rethinking expenditure on all big infrastructure projects as part of austerity measures to cut down its public deficit, the public works ministry said on Monday.

"We are analysing the different projects that are underway to establish the priorities, with an analysis project by project, keeping in mind that the most advanced projects have a greater chance of going ahead" a spokesman for the ministry told press in a statement.

"The advanced stage of a project is a factor which plays in favour of it being executed" he added.

The spokesman was reacting to an article in published in business daily Cinco Dias which said the government would freeze all infrastructure works that are not already more than 90 per cent completed.

He said investments in infrastructure projects would be cut by almost 20 per cent in 2010, with a reduction of 3.2 billion euros out of a total budget of the original 19 billion euros for 2010.

Prime Minister Zapatero said in April that his socialist government would invest 17 billion euros in rail and road projects over the next two years to help revive the economy and fight unemployment. But since then the government unveiled 15 billion euros in spending cuts for this year and 2011 to slash the public deficit to the eurozone limit of 3.0 of GDP by 2013 from 11.2 per cent last year.