Rolled-over budgets

🧾 General State Budget: on time, late or rolled over

The General State Budget is the law that sets each year how much the State may spend and on what, and how much revenue it expects. The Constitution requires the Government to submit the bill to Congress at least three months before the end of the year (art. 134.3), so that Parliament can pass it before 1 January. If it is not ready in time, the previous year's budget is automatically rolled over until the new one is approved (art. 134.4). Using the Official State Gazette (BOE), this page counts how many financial years have started without their own budget and which government was due to present it.

Every financial year since 1978

Days of each year on which the State operated with the previous year's budget rolled over: 0 if the act was published before 1 January, the whole year if it was never approved. 2026 counts the days elapsed up to today.

Delays of half a year are concentrated in years with general elections or a change of government close to the previous autumn (1979, 1983, 1990, 2012 and 2017): the outgoing government does not submit the bill or Parliament is dissolved before voting on it, and the new government passes the budget mid-year. In 2018 the delay was due to a lack of support in Congress. Budgets rolled over for the whole year are those in which Congress rejected the bill or the Government never submitted it.

By government

Each financial year is attributed to the prime minister who was due to submit the bill: the one in office on 30 September of the previous year, when the constitutional deadline expires. The last column of the full table also shows who was in government on 1 January, which is who manages the rollover.

By party: observed versus expected

The expected figures are the years without a budget on 1 January that each party would have had if every government had failed at the same rate, according to the number of years each one was due to present. A ratio of 1 is what would be expected; 2, twice as many; 0.5, half.

The PSOE stands at 1.04 times what would be expected, the PP at 0.54 and the UCD at 1.88. With so few financial years, the difference between the PSOE and the PP is no greater than chance could explain. Whether a budget goes through depends above all on the Government having a majority in Congress, and minority governments or a fragmented Parliament have been more common since 2016.

All financial years

Methodology and sources

• Source: daily summaries of the Official State Gazette (BOE), open data API: acts whose title is «Ley N/AAAA, de …, de Presupuestos Generales del Estado para el año …» (General State Budget Act for the year …). If an act was published in several parts, the date of the first counts. Acts that amend or extend a budget already approved are not counted.
• Automatic rollover (art. 134.4 of the Constitution): if the Budget Act is not approved before the first day of the financial year, the previous year's budget is automatically deemed rolled over until the new one is approved. The rollover keeps the previous year's appropriations, but does not allow new spending policies that need their own appropriation, and updates (pensions, public sector pay) are made by royal decree-law.
• Status: «On time» = act published in the BOE before 1 January of the financial year; «Late» = published during the financial year; «Rolled over» = the financial year ended without its own act. Days of rollover: from 1 January to publication of the act (the whole year if there was none; up to today in the current financial year).
• Attribution: to the prime minister in office on 30 September of the previous year, when the art. 134.3 deadline for submitting the bill expires. This is a debatable choice when the government changes in autumn or winter (financial years 1983 and 2012): the full table also gives the prime minister on 1 January.
• Expected: total years without an act on 1 January since 1978, shared out according to the financial years each party was due to present. It assumes that every government had the same probability of failing, which is not the case (a parliamentary majority matters a great deal).
• International comparison: not included; the rules on rollover or government shutdown without a budget vary from one country to another and there is no consistent official statistic.