MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's autonomous regions will have to shrink their deficit to 0.7 percent of their economic output in 2016 after they widely overshot that same goal last year, the acting government said in a statement on Wednesday.
Spain has been struggling to keep its public deficit in line with targets agreed with the European Commission.
Overspending by many of its 17 regional governments as well as a social security revenue shortfall pushed the overall deficit to 5 percent of gross domestic product in 2015 versus a goal of 4.2 percent.
Madrid is now aiming to cut the deficit in 2016 at a slower pace than had been agreed with Brussels, and it has sought to give the regions some breathing space on their targets while at the same time trying to crack down on overspending.
The regions originally had to reduce their deficit to 0.3 percent of output in 2016, after it stood at 1.66 percent in 2015, well above the 0.7 percent goal for last year.