The European Commission does not expect Spain’s public deficit to drop below 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) before 2018.
The imbalance will be 3.9% this year, and 3.1% in 2017, according to the spring report that the Commission presented on Tuesday.
Spain recently announced that its 2015 deficit was in the 5% range, amply exceeding its target of 4.2% agreed with the European executive for last year.
While Brussels’ expectations with regard to economic output are almost identical to the government’s (Madrid is forecasting 2.7% growth in 2016 and 2.4% in 2017, while the EC posits 2.6% and 2.5%), it has differing views on the deficit.