* Spain's deficit at 5.1 pct/GDP, well above 4.2 pct target
* Portugal's deficit at 4.4 pct instead of required 2.5 pct
* Without Banif recap, Lisbon deficit at 2.8 pct/GDP (adds data on Portugal deficit with Banif recap)
By Francesco Guarascio
BRUSSELS, April 21 (Reuters) - Spain and Portugal had bigger than expected budget deficits last year, badly missing targets set by European Union finance ministers, European Union statistics office data showed on Thursday.
The data is likely to add to pressure on the two countries from the European Commission and EU finance ministers to step up deficit-reduction efforts this year.
Spain had a deficit of 5.1 percent of gross domestic product in 2015, Eurostat said. Although the gap decreased from 5.9 percent in 2014, it was still above forecasts and well above the 4.2 percent target set by EU ministers.
In February, the European Commission forecast Spain would cut the deficit to 4.8 percent in 2015.
Spain's caretaker government said on Tuesday that, in light of the wide miss on 2015 targets, it aimed to cut the deficit this year and next at a slower pace than originally agreed with Brussels.
Portugal's deficit was 4.4 percent in 2015, Eurostat said, a significant drop from the 7.2 shortfall in 2014. But Lisbon was supposed to have cut the gap to 2.5 percent last year and exit the EU disciplinary procedure for countries running deficits above 3 percent.
The outcome is also worse than the Commission's prediction from February when the EU executive arm forecast a 4.2 percent gap for Portugal in 2015.
Excluding one-off government support for Banif bank, Portugal's deficit in 2015 would have been 2.8 percent of GDP, Eurostat said.
The Commission, which monitors EU countries' budgets, will issue its assessment of budgetary plans for the next three years of all EU members in May and decide whether to step up the disciplinary procedure against those who miss targets.
(Editing By Jan Strupczewski and John Stonestreet)