The Government will defend the non-financial spending limit, colloquially known as the spending ceiling, for 2023 this Thursday in the Plenary Session of Congress, in what is considered the first step in the processing of the General State Budget bill for 2023. Specifically, the non-financial spending limit for 2023 amounts to 198,221 million euros, a new record, 1.1% higher than last year’s spending ceiling, including 25,156 million euros of European…

J.P. Marín-Arrese | The Spanish government boasts that the tabled budget will benefit most citizens, from pensioners to young people, self-employed people or civil servants. It hopes targeting such groups will pay off when election time comes. The government is also pinning its re-election hopes on the bonuses it will give young people to help them find a place to live on their own and on the money for entertainment…

Joan Tapia | Yesterday, the Spanish Parliament rejected, with a large majority the complete amendments to the 2021 budget. It is an important step towards political stability and the possibility of creating an economic policy to fight the crisis. From the economic point of view, the Budget may be substantially improved, but we have the government that we have, PSOE with Podemos. So the accounts for 2021 – in the midst of great world uncertainty – are far from being the worst possible.

The Council of Ministers today approved the draft General State Budget for 2021, following the agreement reached last night by the coalition government. The proposal will be focused on mitigating the effects of the pandemic’s effects with the largest public expenditure in history. This amounts to 239.765 billion euros – an increase of 10% – including an advance of 27 billion of European funds. Now the most difficult part remains: obtaining parliamentary support for the Budget.

Spain sent yesterday the Budget Plan for 2021 to the European Commission. It estimates an increase in absolute terms of 33.44 billion euros (+7.3% per year) thanks to the increase in activity and by fiscal measures. The proposal is based on a non-financial spending limit of €196.09 Bn, 53.7% higher than that approved in February. The new macroeconomic framework forecasts a fall in GDP of 11.2% this year, with an unemployment rate of 17.1%, and a growth of 7.2% in 2021.