The Spanish government will approve advance payments this Tuesday.
Autonomous communities and municipalities have had their resources blocked since 2024.
MadridThe Spanish government plans to approve the update of advance payments to the autonomous communities and city councils at the Council of Ministers this Tuesday, as announced by First Vice President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, in an interview on RNE this Monday morning. These resources, which autonomous communities, city councils, and provincial councils rely on to prepare budgets, have been blocked since 2024 (currently, those for 2023 remain extended). Last summer, the Ministry of Finance proposed an update, but it failed to pass in the Congress of Deputies.
Advance payments are the resources that the State transfers in advance to the autonomous communities and city councils depending on the administrations' tax revenue forecasts. They represent the bulk of the resources available to the regions to prepare their budgets and cover basic services. Each year, they are updated based on economic growth forecasts, but especially on tax revenues, which have performed well in recent years.
As for the fifteen autonomous communities under the common system in the State, in January Montero indicated that they would have a total of €135.483 billion, which represented a modest increase of 0.7% compared to the 2023 resources (€134.576 billion). One of the keys that explained this very small revision was the lack of budgets in the State (those for 2023 remain extended due to the Spanish government's difficulty in reaching an agreement with its investiture partners). In Catalonia, if the latest Treasury proposal is taken into account, they would receive €28.715 billion between advance payments and settlements. Tomorrow, Tuesday, we will know if the Spanish government is proposing a new upward revision.
In the case of local councils, these resources are expected to increase to €26.893 billion in advance payments—the transfer is calculated based on estimated revenue for the following year. This represents a 13.1% increase compared to what was announced in 2024. In fact, two weeks ago, ERC announced an agreement with the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) to unblock this increase with an upward revision. According to the Republicans, for the municipalities and provincial councils of Catalonia, this will mean an additional €560 million above the planned figure.
