The Government approves for the second time the deficit path that Congress overturned by an absolute majority
In less than a week and as promised, the Ministry of Finance has submitted for the second time to the Council of Ministers the stability path (deficit, debt and spending rule) for the period 2026-2028 with the same objectives that Congress overturned last Thursday with the absolute majority of PP, Vox, UPN and Junts. The Government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, announced this at the subsequent press conference, where she added that these objectives will be sent back to the Lower House, where, for the moment, they do not have sufficient support to move forward.
The new path maintains the global goals of reducing the public deficit that They were already rejected by Puigdemont’s party in July of last year. The hole in public accounts (the difference between income and expenses) would be 2.1% of GDP next year, 1.8% next year and 1.6% for 2028. In the case of debt, the liabilities of all Public Administrations would be reduced to 100.9% next year, 100% in 2027 and would close at 99.1% for the last year. of the projections. The spending rule or the maximum allowable increase in eligible spending will be 3.5%, 3.4% and 3.2%, respectively.
If Congress rejects the path again, the deficit objectives included in the structural fiscal plan will come into force, which are the same globally, but which force the autonomies to close in budget balance (zero deficit) instead of with one tenth of imbalance. This implies that They would have 5,485 million less spending margin facing the next three exercises. Once this second vote has been passed, regardless of whether or not the goals receive parliamentary approval, the Executive will have already completed the previous procedures to be able to present the General State Budgets for 2026.
The first vice president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has set the objective of presenting the public accounts project in Congress at the latest by the middle of the first quarter of next year. The intention is that the budgets can be approved throughout the months of April or May.
