The secretary of state for budget and expenditure is a senior minister of the Spanish Ministry of Finance responsible for coordinating actions related to planning, programming and budgeting of the State public sector and its personnel costs.
In this sense, the secretary of state establishes the budgetary stability targets and the non-financial spending limit, monitors compliance with targets for budgetary stability, public debt, and the spending rule across the public sector, and proposes corrective measures to address any deviations.
History The position of Secretary of State for Budget and Expenditure was established in June 1973 "with the special mission of ensuring the coordination of the functions pertaining to the Department [of Finance]" in the monetary, credit, budgetary and public spending areas. In this regard, Decree 1312/1973, of June 22, established that this office—then called Under-Secretary for Financial Economics—was needed due to the "significant transformation undergone by our financial institutions, the complexity of monetary and credit instruments [...], as well as the greater demands imposed by new budgetary techniques and the need for agility and flexibility in public spending".
The under-secretary had under its authority the Directorate-General for the Treasury, the Directorate-General for State Assets, the Directorate-General for Financial Policy, the Directorate-General for Budget, the Directorate-General for Insurance and the Official Credit Institute.
During the Spanish transition to democracy, part of its financial responsibilities were transferred to the newly created Ministry of Economy and it was renamed as "Under-Secretary for Budget and Public Expenditure".
In the early 1980s, it was renamed as "Secretary-General for Budget and Public Expenditure" and was placed under the authority of the Secretary of State for Finance. It did not last long, as it was abolished in February 1984 and its powers were assumed directly by the secretary of state, Josep Borrell, former Secretary-General for Budget and Public Expenditure.
The idea behind this reform was to centralize decision-making regarding revenue and expenditure in a single place—the secretary of state. Its ineffectiveness quickly became apparent, as an intermediate position responsible for budgeting and public accounting was re-established in November 1986, the Secretary-General for Planning and Budget.
A decade later, in May 1996, the office was elevated to the rank of secretary of state and named "Secretary of State for Budget and Expenditure". As explained by the first budget secretary José Folgado at the Congress of Deputies Budget Committee:
In 2004, prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero returned budgetary responsibilities to the Secretariat of State for Finance; the position was once again downgraded to an undersecretariat and renamed as "Secretary-General for Budget and Expenditure". In December 2011, prime minister Mariano Rajoy returned to the 1996–2004 structure that today exists.
For most of its history, the Secretariat of State had managed the European Union's funds and budgetary relations, however, in December 2023 finance minister María Jesús Montero assumed this powers directly through a General Secretariat for European Funds. In exchange, the secretary of state was given back authority over the Office of the Comptroller General, which since 2018 had been the responsibility of the Ministry's Under-Secretary.
Organization The secretary of state is the head of the Secretariat of State and, by the minister's delegation, is the ultimate authority responsible for budgetary affairs and expenditure. The secretary of state is assisted by two directors-general and supervises the Comptroller General of the State, with the rank of under-secretary. Secretariat of State Organization (2026)Secretary of StateCabinet (Chief of Staff)Deputy Directorate-General for Economic Analysis and ProgrammingDirectorate-General forBudgetDeputy Directorate-General for BudetDeputy Directorate-General for Budgetary PolicyDeputy Directorate-General for Budgetary Programs in General ActivitiesDeputy Directorate-General for Budgetary Programs in Economic ActivitiesDeputy Directorate-General for Budgetary Programs in Social Security and ProtectionDeputy Directorate-General for Budgetary Programs in Education, Culture and Other Public PoliciesDeputy Directorate-General for Financial Programming of the Public Enterprise SectorDeputy Directorate-General for Cross-Cutting Budget Analysis and Resource ManagementDirectorate-General forPersonnel CostsDeputy Directorate-General for Regulatory Oversight and Administrative AppealsDeputy Directorate-General for Studies and AnalysisDeputy Directorate-General for Cost ManagementComptroller Generalof the StateTechnical CabinetNational Audit OfficeNational Accounting OfficeDeputy Directorate-General for Comptrollership and AuditingDeputy Directorate-General for Studies and CoordinationDeputy Directorate-General for Resources Organization, Planning and ManagementBudgetary Informatics OfficeNational Anti-Fraud Coordination Service
List of officeholders For the purpose of this list, the date used is the date on which the decree of appointment or dismissal received royal assent, which may differ from the date of publication or of the effective taking of office. OfficeholderTermGovernmentFrancisco Fernández Ordóñez28 June 19731 February 1974Luis Carrero BlancoFrancisco FrancoThe Marquess of Arias NavarroThe Count of Bugallal8 February 19748 November 1974José Luis Cerón Ayuso8 November 19747 March 1975José Ramón Álvarez Rendueles22 March 19759 April 1976Juan Carlos IPrudencio de Luis Díaz de Monasterio-Guren9 April 197610 September 1976The Duke of SuárezJaime Basanta de la Peña10 September 197611 July 1977José Barea Tejeiro11 July 197727 April 1979Miguel Martín Fernández27 April 19794 December 1981The Marquess of Ría de RibadeoJosé Miguel Bravo de Laguna4 December 19813 September 1982Josep Borrell7 December 19821 February 1984Felipe GonzálezRafael de la Cruz Corcoll28 November 198622 April 1988Antonio Zabalza Martí22 April 198815 March 1991Julio Viñuela Díaz12 April 199115 July 1994Federico Montero Hita15 July 19947 May 1996José Folgado7 May 199629 April 2000José María AznarElvira Rodríguez6 May 20008 March 2003Ricardo Lorenzo Martínez Rico8 March 200319 April 2004Carlos Ocaña19 April 200410 March 2006José Luis Rodríguez ZapateroLuis Espadas Moncalvillo24 March 200630 December 2011Marta Fernández Currás31 December 201112 November 2016Mariano RajoyFelipe VIAlberto Nadal12 November 20169 June 2018María José Gualda Romero8 June 2018IncumbentPedro Sánchez
See also General State Budget Balanced budget amendment
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