Deficit Reduction Spain's Top Priority

Reducing Spain's budget deficit, which has soared past EU limits due to the deep recession, is the government's top priority, Finance Minister Luis de Guindos said on Monday.

Deficit reduction "is the number one priority from the point of view of economic policy," he said.

The government is under pressure from European authorities to cut Spain's public deficit from 8.9 percent of gross domestic product recorded in 2011 to 6.3 percent this year.

"The government's commitment to respect (the objective) of 6.3 percent of GDP is very strong," he said in an interview with the private radio station Onda Cero.

He said new measures announced in July, including a hike to the VAT sales tax, were taken to attain the target.

The government also aims to find 102 billion euros in budget cuts and tax increases by 2014 so as to lower the public deficit to 2.8 percent of GDP, below the EU maximum limit of 3.0 percent.