By letter and without a Fiscal Policy Council: this is how economic oxygen is arriving for Catalonia this year.

MadridIn July, the autonomous communities used to meet face-to-face with the Ministry of Finance. This month has always been a regular meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF), the conclave that brings together the ministry and the regional ministers of the same rank. At the meeting, the Treasury announced the resources that the autonomous communities under the common system would have available the following year to prepare their budgets: the so-called advance payments or advances. Liquidity was also reported.

This year, however, the ministry has skipped this meeting and has informed the regional governments directly by letter. Specifically, next year the autonomous communities will receive a record €156.99 billion in advance payments (6.5% more than in 2025), of which €30.062 billion will go to Catalonia. "It's a record figure that demonstrates the good health of the Spanish economy," the ministry maintains.

Communities such as Extremadura, governed by the People's Party (PP), had asked the ministry to convene a CPFF and report on these resources. Finally, they learned the amount through a letter they received this Wednesday. However, this meeting was not only about the new resources. The communities also expressed their opinions, particularly regarding the deficit and debt targets, which are also essential for preparing the public accounts. So far, the Treasury has not communicated anything about these targets (the deficit and debt benchmarks for 2023 remain extended).

In addition to the announced financial resources, there is the positive settlement for 2024, which means that the State anticipated less revenue from the communities, but ultimately, this was not the case. This settlement will amount to €13.5 billion (€2.68 billion for Catalonia). Therefore, the communities will receive a total of 169.56 billion euros from the financing system, which is 7.2% more than the resources of this 2025 (147.412 billion). In the case of Catalonia, it will receive a total of 32.749 billion, 6.1% more.

The resources for 2025 have barely been approved so far due to the government's difficulties in finding the necessary votes (the advance payments must be voted on in the Congress of Deputies, which in the case of 2025 was done just last week).

Although updating the resources provides a breath of fresh air for the autonomous communities and municipalities, the Treasury's proposal comes at a time of tension between the PP, which governs most of the autonomous communities, and the Spanish government over the Cerdán case. But also due to issues such as the unique financing agreed between the PSOE and ERC or the cancellation of regional debt. In fact, at the February CPFF, when this debt cancellation for the common regime communities was discussed, the PP left the meeting en masse.

What are trade-ins?

Advance payments or advances are the funds that the State transfers in advance to the autonomous communities and municipalities depending on the administrations' tax revenue forecasts. They represent the bulk of the resources available to the territories to prepare their budgets and cover basic services, and are updated each year according to economic growth forecasts, but especially tax revenues, which have performed well in recent years.