The Spanish government has moved quickly to undo a typo worth billions of dollars.

Days after announcing projected debt figures to the world, the Spaniards realised they had made a mistake. The person who manually entered the digits for the final report misread the numbers, typing what should have been 98.9 per cent as 99.8.

The difference was in the percentage of total economic output equivalent to the nation’s debt. The minor numerical inexactitude meant a difference of about $14.5 billion.

“It is an erratum,” a spokesperson from Spain’s economic ministry said.

The difference shows just how slippery a slope the Spanish economy is on, struggling to emerge from a double-dip recession after a property bubble collapse in 2008. Even with a few billion dollars shaved back off the figures, the nation is still so deeply indebted that it may take years to approach stability.

Public debt leapt from 68.5 per cent of total economic output in 2011 to 85.9 per cent at the end of 2012 and sits at 92.2 halfway through this year.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy believes that even with tough austerity measures he imposed, the public debt this year will rise to the equivalent of 94.2 per cent of total economic output.