Ten municipalities of Cádiz owe over €700 per inhabitant

Jimena de la Frontera
(c)2012 Alberto Bullrich

At the 'good' end of the scale are Jimena, Algar, Chipiona and Zahara de la Sierra

CÁDIZ (Agencies) Ten of the 44 municipalities that make up the province of Cádiz are in debt to the tune of over €700 per inhabitant, according to the latest 2011 figures. The worst debtors are Cádiz,  the capital city itself, Los Barrios, Algodonales and San Roque. The information comes from the Ministerio de Hacienda y Administraciones Públicas (Treasury, for short-ish), which publishes the 'live' debt of every municipality in Spain every year. The figures reveal that on December 31, 2011, the municipalities of the province owe almost €663m, which is>>>down by 6.7% from the same date in 2010. In absolute terms, Cádiz and Jerez de la Frontera, the largest cities by inhabitants, carry just under €111m and €104m respectively.

However, there are ten municipalities where the debt amounts to over €700 per inhabitant, and the list is headed by Los Barrios, where the number is up to €1,026 per resident registered at the town hall.  At the opposite end of the scale, though, are Algar, Benacoaz, El Gastor and Castellar de la Frontera, none of which need to obtain credit for their day to day business. On the other hand, 24 municipalities managed to reduce their 'live' debt, including Algar, Jimena de la Frontera, Chipiona and Zahara de la Sierra.

Overall, each resident of the province of Cádiz is in debt to banks and building societies by €533.12 per head, which is just below the national average of €603.10 and almost identical to that of Andalucía at €533.44.