The Treasury confirms to the autonomous communities a deficit target of 0.1% for the next three years

MadridThe Ministry of Finance is not budging on the deficit target for the autonomous communities in 2026. The department headed by María Jesús Montero (PSOE) has confirmed that the communities will have a deficit target of 0.1% of GDP in 2026, 2027, and 2028, with an additional €1 million in spending leeway during this period, according to sources at the Ministry. Montero will present this figure to the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) convened this Monday at noon, where the Ministry of Finance and the regional finance ministers will meet. This is the same deficit target as in 2024. Back then, when it reached the Congress of Deputies, Junts (Together for Catalonia) rejected it. Given that the Ministry of Finance has not budged, everything indicates that the vote will again fail, or at least that is what Junts has warned.

"We were already working on a budget with this deficit target [of 0.1%]. These are the figures we were working with," explained the Minister of Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero, in a statement to the media before entering the meeting with the regional governments. However, in the case of Catalonia, the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) estimates that it will close 2026 with a deficit of 0.6% of GDP.Regarding the financing system resources available to the autonomous communities under the common regime in 2026, the Treasury will transfer a record €157.731 billion (7% more than in 2025) to them as advance payments. This figure is slightly higher than the one announced in the summer. It's 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. They represent the bulk of the resources available to these territories to prepare their budgets and cover basic services, and are updated annually according to economic growth forecasts, but especially tax revenue forecasts, which have performed well in recent years.

To this amount must be added the positive settlement for 2024: some 12.5 billion euros, according to sources at the Treasury. Europa PressThis means that the State anticipated lower tax revenue from the autonomous communities, but this did not materialize. As a result, the Treasury is providing record revenues of over €170 billion.

All of this—a path to stability with deficit and debt targets for all public administrations and resources—will be approved at tomorrow'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 this opportunity to update the macroeconomic outlook.

Macroeconomic Outlook Update

In this regard, the Ministry of Economy has confirmed an upward revision of its 2025 GDP forecast. The government of Pedro Sánchez now expects the Spanish economy to grow by 2.9% this year, not 2.7% as projected in September. Tuesday's update coincides with the European Commission's publication of its economic growth projections for the various member states. Brussels has ranked 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.