Publication of budget implementation data
State deficit reduction continues in September: 21.3% lower than a year ago
News - 2015.10.27
The State deficit data for the month of September were published on Tuesday by the Ministry of the Treasury and Public Administration Services on its website, as were the data on the combined deficit of the Central Government, the regional governments and the Social Security system corresponding to the month of August, in public accounting terms.
State deficit (September)
In the period January-September, the State posted a deficit of 25.58 billion euros in public accounting terms, representing a reduction of 21.3% on the same period of 2014. In GDP terms, the deficit stands at 2.37% compared with 3.12% in September 2014.
Non-financial State resources
Non-financial State resources posted year-on-year growth of 4.1% to a total of 131.74 billion euros, boosted by growth in tax revenues, which rose by 5.9%. Taxes on production and imports are up 7.7% on last year. This is mainly due to the highly significant results from VAT, which posted 7.2% growth. Current taxes on income and wealth, which include revenue from Personal Income Tax and Corporate Income Tax, rose by 2.9% to September, in spite of the tax reduction stemming from the fiscal reform.
In terms of other non-financial resources, transfers between public authorities grew by 34.7%, mainly due to the effect of the definitive settlement of the funding system for 2013.
In turn, property income fell by 46%. As was the case in previous months, this drop was due to two factors: the fall in dividends stemming from the fall in those corresponding to the Bank of Spain and lower revenue from interest, which fell by 55.2% because an interest rate of 0% was set in 2015 for all loans held by the regional governments and local authorities drawn against extraordinary funding mechanisms.
Non-financial State expenses
Non-financial State expenses fell to 157.32 billion euros, down 1.1% on the period January-September 2014. For the purposes of providing a true comparison between the two periods, it should be noted that the expenses in 2015 include two operations with no corresponding expense in the same period last year: the extra cost for producing electricity on non-mainland territories; and the reimbursement of 25% of the extra bonus payment for 2012. Discounting these two operations, in adjusted terms, expenses fell by 1.6% to September.
The cost of servicing debt fell significantly, by 1.9% to September (438 million euros less than last year), reflecting the improvement in financing conditions. Current transfers between public authorities, which account for the lion's share of all expenditure, shrank by 2.7%. This is largely the result of an 18.4% decrease in transfers to Social Security Funds, a 37.7% drop in transfers to the State Public Employment Service, reflecting the positive performance of the employment market. Conversely, transfers to regional governments and local authorities grew by 2.9% and 1%, respectively.
The remuneration of salaried workers increased by 1.3%, reflecting the impact of the payment in January of 44 days of the suspended 2012 bonus. Social benefits other than social transfers in kind also grew due to the rise in civil service pensions, up by 3.3%. The increase in intermediary consumption of 4.4% was due to the increased cost of issuing and placing debt, early repayment of the ESM and increased election expenses.
With regard to capital expenditure, gross fixed capital formation grew by 3%, while investment subsidies and other capital transfers also increased by 372 million euros, as a result of loan interest subsidy expenses and the contribution made to the ADIF-high speed train programme, neither of which had any corresponding transfers in 2014.
Combined deficit of the Central Government, the regional governments and the Social Security system (August)
To August, the consolidated deficit of the Central Government, regional governments and Social Security system stood at 36.6 billion euros, 16.6% less than in the same period of 2014. The deficit is equivalent to 3.39% of GDP, 0.83 percentage points below the figure posted in the same month of 2014. These figures exclude financial aid totalling 71 million euros which does not count towards the achievement of the stability target.
Central Government
The Central Government reduced its deficit by 22.4% to August, excluding financial aid, to a total of 25.57 billion euros. In GDP terms, this subsector's deficit amounts to 2.37%, 0.8 percentage points below the deficit posted in the same period of 2014 (3.17%).
The Central Government balance includes the State deficit, which shrank by 20.9%, and the balance of Central Government agencies which posted a surplus equivalent to 0.2% of GDP, after discounting financial aid.
Social Security Funds
Social Security Funds recorded a deficit of 3.55 billion euros to August, equivalent to 0.33% of GDP. By agency, the Social Security system posted a deficit of 7.54 billion euros, equivalent to 0.7% of GDP. The State Public Employment Service posted a surplus equivalent to 0.39%. Finally, the Wage Guarantee Fund (Spanish acronym: FOGASA) reduced its deficit to 194 million.
Regional governments
To August, the regional governments reduced their deficit by 25.1% year-on-year, to a total of 7.48 billion euros. In terms of percentage of GDP, the regional government deficit fell to 0.69%, 0.27 points of GDP lower than the figure posted a year ago. Non-financial resources for regional governments grew by 4.1% year-on-year, while non-financial expenditure was up by 1.3%.
For further information, please see the document entitled Principales indicadores de la actividad económica y financiera del Estado [Main indicators of economic and financial activity of the State] at:
For more details on performance by the Central Government, regional governments and Social Security system, please see the document entitled Informe mensual (datos consolidados en contabilidad nacional) [Monthly report (consolidated data in public accounting terms)] at:
