Spanish public debt remains below 100% of GDP for the second consecutive month, a fact that had not occurred since the outbreak of the pandemic. After the State managed to position itself below this psychological barrier last July, the latest data from the Bank of Spain confirm the downward trend. According to the estimates released this Wednesday, Spanish public debt at the end of August would be at 99.7% of gross domestic product (GDP, the indicator that shows the size of an economy), two tenths below the ratio recorded in July and 3.1 points less compared to August of last year. In absolute terms, the liability of the public administrations as a whole would rise to 1.75 trillion euros at the close of August, 2.9% more in year-on-year terms.

The Bank of Spain has increased its inflation forecasts, which it places, for this year and 2027, well above the targets set by the European Central Bank (ECB). The monetary body presented its quarterly macroeconomic forecast report this Friday, in which it also forecasts the growth of the Spanish economy.

Artificial intelligence (AI) affects the entire value chain of banking, and the impact is "brutal". This was stated by the director of the Department of Experimentation and Laboratory of Applied Technologies (Delta) of the Bank of Spain, which is headquartered in Barcelona. During a breakfast organized by the executive organization CEDE at the headquarters of Foment del Treball, he assured that all financial institutions are incorporating this technology, from personnel management and more basic activities to business processes, ranging from credit to risk and monetary policy. The main entities, such as BBVA, CaixaBank and Banco Sabadell, have reinforced this commitment in recent times.

Household debt stood at 729 billion euros in the second quarter of this year, 1.5% more than twelve months ago, but its weight in the gross domestic product (GDP) fell to 41.9%, the lowest level since the third quarter of 1999. According to the financial accounts published by the Bank of Spain, companies also reduced the weight of their liabilities relative to the state's total wealth during this period, between April and June of this year. In this case, it stood at a total of 1.077 trillion euros, 2% more than a year ago, but at 61.9% of GDP, the lowest level since the third quarter of 2001.

Spanish banks closed the second quarter of 2026 reaching profitability figures never seen since records began. According to the data published this Monday by the Bank of Spain, the profitability of all credit institutions in the country stood at 16.05%, one and a half points higher than the same period last year. The sector's good performance in terms of productivity, however, clashes with the climate of tension felt among the workforce. Just last week, the services federation of Comissions Obreres (CCOO) –the trade union with the most representation in the Spanish banking and financial sector– called for demonstrations on October 15 and November 4 in front of the main Spanish institutions in a dozen cities to demand better working conditions for employees.

Matching the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of the main countries of the European Union (EU) may cost Spain between two and three decades of growth above the average. This is a path already initiated in 2013, but one that requires many more continuous years to equal the leaders in wealth per inhabitant, which are Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, known as the EMU4. This is pointed out by the document The sources of growth in Spain and the main European economies: total factor productivity and sectoral heterogeneity,published by the Bank of Spain.

Mortgage loans were the main drivers of credit growth granted to Spanish households during the past month of July. According to data presented this Tuesday by the Bank of Spain, loans granted by financial entities to families and non-profit institutions across the State totaled 723,867 million euros, 3% more than in July of last year.

During 2025, Catalans filed 4,798 complaints with the Bank of Spain. The figure – representing 15.4% of the total claims made in the State – is 55% lower than the claims made a year earlier, in 2024. This sharp decrease returns the statistics to their usual pace: as the Bank of Spain explained this Tuesday, 2024 was a year of "extraordinary" activity due to the Supreme Court's ruling on undue mortgage expenses.

The digital euro project has been on the lips of all European institutions for years. Ever since it was proposed in 2020, the European Central Bank (ECB) argued for its implementation, both to speed up payments between states in an increasingly digitized environment and to strengthen the strategic independence of the European Union. But six years later, public ignorance of the project remains high. According to a survey by the Foundation of Savings Banks (Funcas) published in February, only one in four Spaniards understands what it consists of.

2026 has begun marked by uncertainty, especially geopolitical due to the war in the Middle East, and it is already noticeable in the credit that banks provide, but also in the demand from families and businesses. On the one hand, during the first quarter of the year (January, February, and March), financial institutions in the State tightened the criteria for granting loans in all segments (mortgages, consumer, and business), but especially in loans to companies, as is evident from a new Bank Lending Survey published this Tuesday by the Bank of Spain (BdE).

The growth of the economy translated last year into the lowest level of household and business debt in 25 years. And, on the other hand, household financial wealth, resulting from the difference between assets held and debts, reached a record of 2.645 trillion euros, representing 156.8% of GDP, compared to the average of 149.1% since 2022, according to data from the financial accounts of the Spanish economy published by the Bank of Spain.

One of the songs from the final stage of The Beatles was The long and winding road (The long and winding road), on the album Let it be, the last one published, even though it was recorded before Abbey Road. Surely the title and parts of the lyrics come to mind for Alícia Romero's Ministry of Economy: "You left me standing here. A long, long time ago. Don't leave me waiting. Guide me to your door." Not only because of the difficulties she has in approving the first budgets of Salvador Illa's legislature, which also, but because of the obstacles in achieving another objective pursued by the different Catalan governments, which is to make the Institut Català de Finances (ICF) a true public bank to cover areas that private financial entities do not reach, or barely do.

The Bank of Spain closed last year with a profit of 234 million euros, which are transferred directly to the Public Treasury, as the entity collects in its annual accounts. With this result, the body chaired by José Luis Escrivá overcomes the two consecutive years of operating losses with which it closed 2023 and 2024, as happened with all central banks that are part of the Eurosystem, including the European Central Bank (ECB).

The Catalan government will buy half of the Bank of Spain building in Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona. The transaction will cost the Catalan government €58.4 million, plus an additional €36.9 million for renovations before it can move in, as announced this Friday. The VanguardThe acquisition of part of the building would allow the Catalan government to save approximately 4.5 million euros annually. The Governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, had publicly admitted in the past that the bank's branch in the center of Barcelona was underutilized and had opened the door to its sale to the Generalitat (Catalan government), which is itself trying to increase its portfolio of owned offices.

Analysts at the Bank of Spain are heading into their Christmas break with a positive outlook regarding the country's economic growth. In line with other international organizations, and also with the Spanish government, the supervisory body forecasts that the Spanish economy will grow more than previously expected in 2025 (2.9%), as well as in 2026 and 2027. And they expect it to grow strongly. Thus, for next year, they estimate a rebound in gross domestic product (GDP, the indicator used to measure the size of an economy) of 2.2%, while in 2027 they project 1.9%, as detailed in the macroeconomic projections published this Tuesday. This represents an upward revision of four and two tenths of a percentage point, respectively, compared to the projections from last September.

"In Spain, SMEs are the ones that finance large companies on clean terms." This is how the Governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, described the complicated financing situation of small and medium-sized enterprises, aggravated by the fact that large corporations generally take more than two months to pay their suppliers. He made these remarks on Tuesday during his address to the board of directors of Pimec, where he also held a dialogue with the president of the Catalan employers' association, Antoni Cañete.

Spanish banking default rates fell below 3% in June for the first time since October 2008, according to data released by the Bank of Spain. The non-performing loan ratio stood at 2.97%, very similar to the 2.92% recorded in October 2008, when the economy peaked before the financial crisis.

Banks operating in Spain, both domestic and foreign, are strengthening their solvency and reaching their highest levels of profitability, according to the latest data from the Bank of Spain.

Only three countries in the European Union collect more than Catalonia from inheritance and gift tax, although there are two autonomous communities in the state—the Balearic Islands and Asturias—that also collect more, according to a study by the Bank of Spain. The report, published on July 1 and titled The possible revenue impact of some hypothetical reforms to the inheritance and gift tax, It points out that all autonomous communities could collect more if they adjusted the rates paid for this tax to the levels they had in 1996, when the Spanish government ceded its management to the autonomous communities.

The net wealth of Spanish households grew by 8.1% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period a year ago, reaching €2.4 trillion, according to financial accounts published by the Bank of Spain. The same report shows a moderation in household debt, reaching 43.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), its lowest level since the first quarter of 2000.