This Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved the budget spending ceiling for 2026, set at 212,026 million euros. It represents 8.5% more than what was presented for 2025 and a historical maximum, as reported by the first vice president of the Government and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero. This has added that, including European funds (4,151 million), the spending ceiling by which the future 2026 budget would be governed rises to 216,177 million, also 8.5% more.
In addition, the Council of Ministers has approved the deficit and public debt objectives for submission to the Cortes Generales. With this, the first step is taken towards the preparation of the General State Budgets for 2026, as Montero has emphasized: “We have met the first fundamental milestone towards the approval of the General State Budgets for the year 2026, which we are going to present because they are going to be good for all citizens.”
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It should be noted that the spending ceiling is not voted on in the Cortes Generales, but the 2026-2028 stability path is. If this is approved in Parliament, then the Council of Ministers could approve the project with the budgets for subsequent sending to the Cortes, since they would also have to be validated there. It will be this Thursday when this path will be voted on in Congress, as agreed by the Board of Spokespersons of the Lower House.
Montero, in the press conference after the Council of Ministers, has also declared that future budgets are going to be “expansive and responsible”, ensuring that he is already working to ensure that they are perceived by the majority of political groups as a “necessity” to be transferred to homes.
Reduce the deficit of all Public Administrations from 2.1% to 1.6% in 2028
Also with a view to the budgets, the approved stability path serves as a ‘roadmap’ in terms of debt and deficit for the General Administration of the State, the autonomies, local entities and Social Security. Thus, the green light has been given to the fiscal path until 2028, which involves reducing the deficit of all Public Administrations from 2.1% in 2026, to 1.8% in 2027 and to 1.6% in 2028.
By subsectors, a deficit of 0.1% of GDP has been set for the autonomous communities in the years 2026, 2027 and 2029, while budget stability has been set as an objective for the town councils. It should be remembered that this deficit was the same one that fell in July of last year in the Congress of Deputies with the votes against Junts.
On the contrary, fiscal consolidation will fall to the General State Administration and also to Social Security. In the case of the General State Administration (AGE), the objective will be 1.8% for 2026, compared to 2.2% in 2025. In 2027 the objective for the AGE will be 1.5% and in 2028, 1.4%. In the case of Social Security, the Treasury expects the deficit to be 0.2% in 2026 and 2027 and to drop to 0.1% in 2028.
Regarding public debt, the Government has approved the objective for public administrations that will be 100.9% of GDP in 2026, 100% in 2027 and 99.1% in 2028. “We are going to continue reducing our country’s liabilities, something that we have been doing successfully in recent years, after having reached its maximum peak during the pandemic,” said the Minister of Public Debt. Treasury. Finally, the spending rule is set at 3.5% in 2026, 3.4% in 2027 and 3.2% in 2028.