Public works tenders stagnate in Catalonia
The total tendered between January and June was 1,714.1 million euros
BarcelonaThe Chamber of Contractors of Public Works of Catalonia notes a "loss of dynamism" in public contracting which, as they assure, "keeps the tendered volume far from the levels that would be necessary to reduce the accumulated deficit in infrastructure investment". In its quarterly report on tenders in Catalonia, the entity points to a "stagnation": between January and June, 1,714.1 million euros have been tendered, which represents an increase of 2.1% compared to the same period in 2025.
This slight upturn, in fact, has been driven by the role of the central administration. While last year Madrid only tendered 219.2 million euros in all of Catalan territory during the first semester, this year this figure has soared by 80.8%, to 396.3 million. During the first six months of 2026, the trend of recent years has begun to be reversed: since 2022, the State has been reducing public works tenders in Catalonia for three years.
For its part, the Generalitat has decreased its tenders by 2%, to 432.9 million euros, while local administration continues to be the main tendering driver (with an increase of 2.4%), with 838 million tendered. Where there has been a sharp decline, however, has been in administrations classified as "others" – which include various public bodies made up of different entities, but without a clear dominant administration, such as Fira de Barcelona–. In these, the tender level has fallen by 76.5%, from 199 million during the first semester of last year to 46.9 million this year.
Barcelona takes the lion's share of projects
Regarding the territorial distribution, Barcelona has taken a large slice of the pie: the capital's demarcation accumulated 73% of the semester's total, equivalent to 1,255.7 million euros. Tarragona (220 million euros), Girona (109.3 million), and Lleida (106.1 million) shared the rest of the bids. As for the main bidders, Infraestructures de la Generalitat de Catalunya was the one that budgeted the most money, with 209.5 million euros. It was followed by the airport operator Aena, with 165.5 million, and Bimsa (Barcelona d'Infraestructures Municipals), with 101.9 million.
