The economic reality of Spain today has little to do with that of three years ago. However, given the Government’s difficulties in presenting and approving a Budget project since then, the public accounts that guide the country’s major figures are still referenced to 2023 and, consequently, are more than outdated. Faced with this deadlock, the Executive has found a way to keep the economy running. These are credit modifications, a kind of adjustment that allows budget items to be altered. In the first half of 2026, the Ministry of Finance reassigned a total of 77.281 billion euros through this formula, an amount that surpasses the previous record of 76.943 billion, with the nuance that the latter affected the entire year 2025. Therefore, given the trend, the numbers from the General Intervention of the State Administration (IGAE, an agency dependent on the Ministry of Finance) indicate that the current fiscal year will end at unprecedented levels.
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The use of modifications is not new, but the scale it has reached is. In 2019, after the motion of no confidence that ended Mariano Rajoy’s Government in 2018, the newly inaugurated Executive of Pedro Sánchez presented a Budget project that was rejected, leading to new general elections and the extension of the previous accounts, the last prepared by the PP. That year, budget modifications totaled 16.320 billion euros. In 2020, with the 2018 accounts extended for a second time and in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the volume soared to 76.077 billion.
The difference with the current situation is even clearer when looking at the most recent years. In 2023, the last year with approved and updated accounts, Finance made modifications amounting to about 13 billion between January and June, rising to 21 billion by December. Since then, this route has not stopped growing. In the first half of 2024, with the first extension, about 20.6 billion were recorded, rising to 52.3 billion by year-end. In the first half of 2025, nearly 29.7 billion were registered, closing the year at 76.943 billion. The leap in 2026, with a record figure to date, thus breaks with the scale of previous years and anticipates a year-end close at stratospheric levels.
Budget modifications are alterations of credits, whether to increase, reduce, or transfer them from one item to another. They have always existed, as they allow the Administration to operate with some flexibility day to day. However, since the accounts have been extended, their use has increased and they function as a wildcard to keep the machinery running.
The year will end with the 2023 Budgets extended. It was an open secret that had been anticipated for several months, but the Government confirmed it at the beginning of summer. In June, the president, Pedro Sánchez, stated that he would present a budget project for 2027, burying the very remote possibility of one for the final stretch of 2026. Finance has already given the green light for this and will accelerate after the summer holidays. Meanwhile, budget modifications will remain the order of the day.
Managing a country today with accounts designed more than three years ago is like undertaking a home renovation with an old budget. Along the way, needs have changed and expenses and obligations have appeared that no one had foreseen then. To face them, the Government resorts to these patches, which move funds from one place to another and enable credits for new commitments. There are several types of movements broken down in the IGAE data.
Extraordinary credits, for example, are intended to finance expenses not foreseen in the initial budget. Between January and June, they totaled about 10.229 billion euros. Supplements and increases, on the other hand, allow for increasing existing credits, in this case worth 13.648 billion and 41.024 billion euros, respectively. The incorporation of unspent surpluses from previous years added another 13.382 billion, while credits generated by revenues exceeded 2 billion. About 3.5 billion were also recovered through cancellations and rectifications, which are accounting adjustments to reduce credit balances in certain expense items.
Debt, pensions, and defense
The IGAE numbers also allow seeing the destination of all these modifications. A large amount of the credits in the first half of the year, more than 29.6 billion, is linked to increases related to public debt. In periods of budget extension, the initial estimates for liabilities become outdated compared to the actual schedule of maturities and the evolution of interest rates. For this reason, the Government is forced to process multimillion modifications to legally guarantee the payment of the State’s financial commitments.
Also notable, with about 15 billion, are the budget alterations in the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Business, which usually directly respond to the execution of economic policy, management of European funds, and business incentives. Credit increases linked to the Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration branch also reach high levels, with about 7.3 billion mainly explained by transfers from the General State Budget to the General Treasury of Social Security. Defense, for its part, adds more than 3.8 billion, as the initial budget has fallen short to cover the obligations assumed by Spain.
The Fiscal Authority, as credit modifications have gained weight, has explained on several occasions that the concatenation of extensions prevents good macroeconomic and fiscal planning. That is, although the extensions of accounts and modifications of items are a practice foreseen to avoid administrative paralysis, they should be used exceptionally. Otherwise, Airef warns, it prevents accountability and control, since many of these patches are approved without being validated by Congress.
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