Promised and delivered

A budget is a promise about spending. Every month the Treasury reports how much of the promise has been kept, and every summer one number from that report makes the news: the share of the development budget spent by June.

What the numbers say

Each bar is one type of spending. The pale track is the budget for the year as amended, the filled part is what had been paid out by 31 August, and the vertical line marks two thirds: where spending would be if it ran evenly through the year.

Salaries and pensions had reached 58%, benefits 54% and transfers 62%. These are regular payments, and they were five to thirteen points behind the calendar.

Three lines are far behind. Operating spending, which is what ministries buy, stood at 39%. Fixed assets, which is what the state builds and equips, stood at 31%. Projects co-financed with the European Union stood at 38%.

The tick on each bar shows the same date a year earlier. The pattern was much the same, with interest payments and co-financed projects further along than in 2025. In total the state had spent 53% of its budget in both years.

What it means for you

The headline every July is that only a quarter of the development budget has been spent by mid-year. In 2026 that was true: 25% by the end of June. It is also normal. The average for that date over the past ten years is 22%, and by the end of August the figure had reached 37% against an average of 32%.

What matters more is where the year ends. In 2025 the state spent 81% of its final development budget, against a ten-year average of 69%. A fifth of the money set aside for roads, buildings and equipment was not spent. That is better than usual, and it still means that one euro in every five promised for investment was not spent that year.

Money that is budgeted but not spent is one reason a year can end with a better balance than planned.

What people argue

Is 25% by June a failure? The Ministry of Finance says no: the figure is above the ten-year average for that date. The Fiscal Council reads the same number as a sign that the state lacks the capacity to deliver the projects it announces. Both are describing the same pattern. It is steady, and it is slow.

Does it matter if the money is spent late? One view is that only the total at the end of the year counts. The other is that a budget which always overstates what will be built makes every announcement of new investment less believable, and that unspent investment is the easiest way to produce a surplus.

How we know

The figures are from the Treasury's monthly report on the execution of the state budget for January to August 2026 and from its report for the first half. They are cash figures for the central government's own budget and leave out loan repayments. The Treasury prints them rounded to ten million euro. The comparison with the ten-year average, which the Ministry of Finance cites, is printed in the Treasury's own reports for the first half and to August 2026. The Fiscal Council's reading is as reported in the press, from its Interim Report 2026 of 24 September 2026, which discusses the 25% figure.

The Treasury does not publish spending by ministry during the year, only by type of spending and by purpose. A ministry-by-ministry comparison exists only for a full year, after it has ended.