PUBLIC FINANCES GENERAL OVERVIEW

• Stability Programme 2020 (Spanish)  (April 30, 2020 - pdf 1.1 MB)

  The Stability Programme is a key document for the design of the fiscal policy in the short, medium and long term, and for the coordination of economic policies in the European Union.

• Council EU: Council Decision abrogating EDP for Spain (June 14, 2019)

  On 14 June 2019, the Council closed the excessive deficit procedure for Spain, confirming that it has reduced its deficit below the EU's 3% of GDP reference value. Spain's general government deficit amounted to 2.5% of GDP in 2018, down from 3.1% of GDP in 2017. The Commission's spring 2018 economic forecast projects deficits of 2.3% of GDP in 2019 and 2.0% of GDP in 2020, thus remaining below the EU's 3% of GDP reference value over the forecast horizon.

BUDGET EXECUTION & BUDGETARY INFORMATION

• Budget Execution (March 31, 2021)

  The consolidated budget outturn of the General Government, excluding Local Administrations, in January 2021 was a deficit of -0.66% of GDP (Central Government, -0.58%; Regional Governments, -0.11%; Social Security System, +0.03%; financial aid, 0.00%) against -0.55% recorded in January 2020. The State deficit to the end of February stood at -1.31% of GDP against -1.00% recorded in February 2020.

• Banco de España: General government debt under the Excessive Deficit Protocol (EDP). (March 31, 2021)

  General government debt under the Excessive Deficit Protocol (EDP) according to the spring EDP notification to the European Commission, amounted to €1.35 trillion at the end of December 2020. Using nominal GDP, in 2020 the debt/GDP ratio stood at 120%, 24.5 pp up on 2019. This growth is due to both the increase in debt in absolute value and the decline in GDP. The annual growth rate of outstanding debt was 13.2%.

• European Commission: Opinion on the Draft Budgetary Plan of Spain (November 18, 2020)

  The Commission is of the opinion that the DBP of Spain is overall in line with the recommendation adopted by the Council on 20 July 2020. Most of the measures set out in the DBP of Spain are supporting economic activity against the background of considerable uncertainty. Given the level of Spain’s government debt and high sustainability challenges in the medium term before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is important for Spain to ensure that, when taking supportive budgetary measures, fiscal sustainability in the médium term is preserved. Spain is invited to regularly review the use, effectiveness and adequacy of the support measures and stand ready to adapt them as necessary to changing circumstances.

• CoM: Approval of the 2021 Draft National Budget  (October 27, 2020 - pdf 119 KB)

  On 27 October the Council of Ministers approved the presentation of the Draft National Budget for 2021 to Parliament, which includes a first tranche of the European Union Recovery Funds.

• Eurostat: Provision of deficit and debt data for 2019 - second notification (October 22, 2020)

  In Spain the government deficit to GDP ratio rose from 2.5% in 2018 to 2.9% in 2019. The government debt to GDP ratio decreased from 97.4% at the end of 2018 to 95.5% at the end of 2019.

• Draft budgetary plan Spain 2021 (Spanish) (October 15, 2020)

  To ensure the coordination of fiscal policies among Member States sharing the euro as their currency and because economic policy is recognised by the EU Treaty as 'a matter of common concern', governments are required by European economic governance rules to submit their Draft Budgetary Plans for the following year to the Commission by October 15.

• Council of Ministers: Government agrees ceiling on spending for 2021 and suspends fiscal rules for this year and the next  (October 06, 2020 - pdf 22 KB)

  The government raised the limit on resources available to attend to the COVID-19 health emergency and to boost the recovery to the amount of 196.1 billion euros. Furthermore, to give regional governments and local authorities greater financial margin, no stability targets have been set, just reference guidelines on deficits.