Eight regional governments in Spain are on track to not meet their deficit objectives. At this point in the fiscal year, that's too many for comfort. Plus, these governments have already made 62% of their spending cuts for the year and can't cut much more.
That is to say, the cutbacks total to 11 billion euros, which is nine tenths of a point away from the 1.5% deficit corresponding to 2012.
The regions ought to bear in mind that if they don't fix their problems individually in the near term, the failure will hurt them collectively in the long term, becuase if one or two regions don't meet their deficit objecives, then the other regions will absorb some of the costs. All are making sacrifices, some are setting back the group.
Looking at what happened with Greece (the EU faild to regulate their national issues until they spread to the rest of Europe), the Spanish national government should monitor its regions closely.
The main challenge is to get all regoins to meet their deficit objective by year end without offering them an alternative deal.
