Madrid, Oct 1 (IANS/EFE) The annual outlay for the Spanish royal family has been reduced from over $12 million to $11.5 million for 2011 as part of an austerity measure to save the country’s recession-hit economy.
The royal family received 8.9 million euros (slightly more than $12 million) this year, with the appropriation for 2011 set at 8.43 million euros (about $11.5 million), the government said while presenting the budget in Parliament Thursday.
The appropriation for Spain’s head of state was frozen for 2010, also for the first time in the country’s history.
Under the Spanish Constitution, the head of state is entitled to ‘a full amount for the maintenance of his family and his household’.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s austerity plan calls for ministries and other public institutions to cut spending next year in an effort to reduce Spain’s budget deficit.
Spain has been mired in a severe recession marked by a soaring budget deficit and an unemployment rate of more than 20 percent.
