The Ministry of Finance will allow eight autonomous communities that recorded a surplus in 2025 to use it to invest in housing or other matters considered “sustainable.” Today’s Council of Ministers has approved a royal decree-law that rewards these territories that did their fiscal homework. It is not the first time such a measure has been activated, although previously it was mainly done to cover expenses associated with disasters. Previously, municipalities had also been authorized to use their positive balance.
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Finance has established in the royal decree-law a second element of fiscal rigor to flexibilize the use of resources. Thus, autonomous communities that closed 2025 with a debt-to-GDP ratio below 12.4% will be able to allocate the surplus to investments that do not count for compliance with the spending rule. This measure corrects the Organic Law of Budgetary Stability, which requires allocating those resources to debt payment.
The autonomous communities that will benefit from the flexibilization of the rules to reinvest the surplus are Andalusia, Basque Country, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Galicia, Asturias, Navarre, and Cantabria. The Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, has estimated a total benefit of 4 billion for these territories.
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The rest of the autonomous communities closed 2025 in deficit and, therefore, will not be able to access these resources. The most delicate situation was that of the Valencian Community, with a gap of 2.52% of GDP (almost 4 billion). It was followed by Murcia, with 1.56% (700 million). Catalonia’s deficit that year was 0.54%, 1.7 billion; and Madrid’s, 0.32%, 1 billion.
Catalonia’s deficit in 2025 was 0.54% of GDP, 1.7 billion; and Madrid’s, 0.32%, 1 billion
España defended today, after the Council of Ministers, that Sánchez’s government is “the one that has most supported the financial sufficiency of the autonomous communities, which is another way of saying that it has most supported the welfare state in our country.” The Finance Minister again denounced the refusal of the autonomous communities governed by the PP to negotiate the proposed reform of the financing system approved last Friday by the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council and which is pending to pass through the Council of Ministers to reach Parliament.
