The Government finalizes the stability program that contemplates an update of the most ambitious fiscal path. The main novelty of the document is that Spain undertakes to reduce the public deficit to 3% in 2024, one year earlier than planned in the previous path, according to sources from the Ministry of Finance. This means that Spain will comply with the current Stability Pact of the EU in 2024, although the debate is open in Brussels.
Specifically, the deficit reduction path for all public administrations over the next few years will be 3.9% in 2023, 3% in 2024, 2.7% in 2025 and 2.5% in 2026 With these objectives, Spain expects to reach a primary surplus in the year 2025.
"The Government is committed to the sustainability of public finances," says the Treasury. In recent years, and despite having already allocated 45,000 million to anti-inflation aid, Spain has managed to reduce the deficit by more than half: from 10.1% in 2020, after the pandemic, to 4.8% in 2022 They have been more than five percentage points of GDP, the largest reduction in the series in that period without including financial aid. They have been 49,500 million euros since 2020.
The reduction of the public deficit is taking place, explains the Treasury, thanks to "economic growth, higher than the average of the EU countries", the increase in tax collection and job creation. "Therefore, the Government achieves fiscal consolidation without applying cuts," concludes the Ministry of María Jesús Montero.
