The autonomous communities will receive a record 157.731 billion in 2026

A windfall of millions for the autonomous communities under the common regime. The Ministry of Finance has informed regional governments that next year they will receive record resources from the financing system, amounting to up to €157.731 billion (7% more than in 2025) in the form of advance payments. This figure is slightly higher than the one announced in the summer. Of this money, Catalonia will receive a record €30.207 billion, 6.9% more than in 2025, as reported by the Ministry of Finance this Monday, following the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF). It is worth remembering that advance payments are the resources that the State transfers in advance to the autonomous communities and municipalities, depending on the administrations' tax revenue forecasts. These funds represent the bulk of the resources available to the regions for preparing their budgets and covering basic services, and are updated annually according to economic growth forecasts, but above all, tax revenue projections, which have performed well in recent years. To this amount must be added the positive settlement for 2024: €13.506 billion. This means that the central government anticipated lower tax revenue for the regions that year, but this did not materialize. Thus, the Treasury will transfer a total of €170.3 billion. Deficit target of 0.1%

However, the Treasury is not making any changes to the deficit target for the autonomous communities in 2026. The department headed by María Jesús Montero (PSOE) has confirmed that they will have a deficit target of 0.1% of GDP in 2026, 2027, and 2028. "That means a deficit for all three years," Montero said at a press conference. For Catalonia, this represents approximately €1 billion in additional spending leeway during this period, according to calculations by the Catalan government. Along with the deficit target, Montero also announced the debt target for the autonomous communities (set at 20% of GDP for 2026), as well as the spending rule limit, which for next year will rise to 3.5% (currently at 3.5%). The Minister of Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero, welcomed the upward revision of the spending rule limit, as it is a key element of the new European fiscal rules, although the Valencian government will still not comply with it. The three elements (deficit target, debt, and spending rule) constitute the path to stability.

In any case, the most contentious issue is that the deficit target is the same one that was proposed in 2024. Back then, when it reached the Congress of Deputies, Junts rejected it. Furthermore, this Monday, within the framework of the Fiscal Policy Council, all the PP-governed regions voted against it. Given this scenario, the vote in the Spanish lower house is once again shaping up to be complicated.

Should the new stability plan fail, Montero has assured that the approach notified to the European Commission in the last structural fiscal plan will be applied. Although this plan does not specify a concrete deficit target, the Treasury interprets this scenario as implying fiscal balance. This means that the deficit target for the regions would be 0% of GDP. “[Voting against the new path] is like burying our heads in the sand,” said Montero, who even estimated that the regions would lose €1.755 billion annually in spending margin (€5.485 billion between 2026 and 2028). “We were already working on a budget with that deficit target [of 0.1%],” explained Romero. In the case of Catalonia, theThe Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) estimates that it will close 2026 with a deficit of 0.6% of GDP.

Macro box update

All of this—through stability measures and resources—will be approved at Tuesday's cabinet meeting, along with the spending ceiling. This is the first step in drafting a new national budget for 2026. However, the Spanish government will also take advantage of the meeting to update its macroeconomic outlook. The Ministry of Economy has confirmed an upward revision of GDP for 2025. Pedro Sánchez's government now expects the Spanish economy to grow by 2.9% this year, not 2.7% as projected in September. Tuesday's update will coincide with the publication of the European Commission's projections. They place Spain as the fastest growing economy in 2025"We are in line with what the European Commission anticipates," confirmed the Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, in the Congress of Deputies.