The Navarran government met on Monday to discuss next year’s budget, passing a draft which would mean a cut in spending of 327 million Euros compared to 2012.



The cuts will coincide with the start of work on the TAV (High Speed Train) network which will run through Navarra and take up 68 million of the 162 millions euros set aside for public investment.



Cuts have been made across all departments including health and education, two sectors in which the government has been especially criticised for reducing their respective budgets.



The sector most affected by the cuts for the second year running has been culture, which will suffer a 26% reduction in funding in 2013.



Mariano Rajoy’s governing People’s Party (PP) have put in place strict austerity measures which local governments have to comply when publishing their annual budgets.



Finance Minister Lourdes Goicoechea said that these cuts were motivated under the premise of ‘rationality, balance, and economic recovery,’ and that basic services will be able to continue in Navarra.

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The decisions were based on forecasts for the Spanish economy that predict a fall of 1.2% in Spain’s GDP, 2.4% in national employment, and a rise in the consumer price index of 1.7%.  Navarra’s governing UPN party retain the right to revise these figures if the predictions prove to be inaccurate in the coming year, as has already happened in 2012.