The debt of public administrations stood in the second quarter of the year at 101.4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which represents 1.8 percentage points less than in the same period of the previous year, although with a "record" volume of 1.763 trillion euros, according to data released this Wednesday by the Bank of Spain.
In absolute terms, public debt totaled 1.763 trillion euros between April and June 2026, which implies a year-on-year increase of 4.3% and exceeds the historical maximum that had already been reached in the previous quarter, when it was at 1.740 trillion.
Despite this increase in volume, the debt/GDP ratio has decreased by 1.8 points compared to the second quarter of the previous year, remaining at 101.4%, the same percentage recorded in the first three months of 2026.
The Government expects that by the end of 2026 public debt will break through the 100% GDP mark and reduce to 99.3%, advancing by a year the goal of lowering it below that threshold, initially set for the end of the legislature.
Although the Medium-Term Fiscal and Structural Plan of the Executive outlines a downward trajectory for the coming years, official projections do not specify when Spain will manage to place its debt below the prudent limit of 60% of GDP established by Brussels.
The volume of State and Social Security debt rises
Regarding the different subsectors of Public Administrations, the debt of the Central Administration reached 1.613 trillion euros in June 2026, equivalent to 92.8% of GDP, compared to 94.5% in 2025. In year-on-year comparison, the liabilities of this subsector increased by 4.2%.
The debt of the Social Security Administrations stood at 136.178 billion euros, 7.9% more than a year earlier, which represents 7.8% of GDP.
This increase responds to the loans that the State has been granting to the General Treasury of Social Security to cover a significant part of its budgetary imbalance. As these are internal financial operations between public subsectors, these credits do not modify the consolidated debt volume of the entire Public Administrations.
Five communities below 13% of GDP
In the field of territorial administrations, the debt of the autonomous communities (CCAA) rose in the second quarter of 2026 to 355.241 billion euros, 20.4% of GDP, which represents a year-on-year increase of 3.6%.
Five autonomous communities kept their indebtedness below the threshold of 13% of GDP set as a reference in the Stability Law: Navarra (8.4%), Canarias (10.9%), País Vasco (11.7%), Madrid (12.3%) and Asturias (12.5%).
On the opposite side, the regions with the highest debt ratios were the Comunidad Valenciana, which continues to top the list with 40% of GDP, followed by the Región de Murcia (30.8%), Cataluña (28.1%) and Castilla-La Mancha (28.1%).
For its part, the debt of local corporations decreased to 21.394 billion euros, 1.2% of GDP, which represents a decrease of 8.3% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Within this subsector, the municipalities that are provincial capitals concentrated 6.700 billion euros, non-capital municipalities accumulated 10.400 billion and the rest of the local entities added up to 4.100 billion euros.
If we consider municipalities with more than 300,000 inhabitants, their combined debt decreased by 18.9% in year-on-year terms, reaching 4.500 billion euros. In this group, the Ayuntamiento de Madrid remained the most indebted, with 1.500 billion euros, ahead of Barcelona (1.200 billion) and Zaragoza (about 500 million).
In per capita debt, Zaragoza recorded the highest figure, with 724 euros per inhabitant, followed by Barcelona (711 euros) and Murcia (530 euros). At the opposite end, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has no debt, while Valencia stood at 72 euros per inhabitant and Bilbao at 137 euros.
Behavior by instruments and terms
Regarding the composition of the debt by instruments and maturities, long-term values experienced a year-on-year advance of 3.6%, while loans with a term of more than one year increased by 5.3% compared to June 2025.
On the other hand, the year-on-year variation rate in the second quarter of 2026 for short-term instruments showed an increase of 12.6%, reflecting a greater reliance on this type of financing in the analyzed period.