October 10, 2022

Positive growth figures for Spain

While several countries in the European Union are facing an imminent economic recession, both the Spanish government and the Spanish national central bank improve Spain's growth forecast for this year.

The Spanish economy will grow somewhat more than what the Spanish government had forecast in July, from 4.3% to 4.4% in 2022. This is reflected in an article in the newspaper El País.

– We see strong activity and job creation, also in tax revenue, so everything indicates that the Spanish economy, until September, continues to grow quite strongly, the first vice president of the government and economy minister, Nadia Calviño, is quoted in the article.

According to the forecasts, the movement will be reversed for next year, when the forecast drops from 2.7% to 2.1%. The economic cooling caused by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia will begin to be felt in Spain as well. However, the worsening by 0,6 percentage points for next year, are still a much better forecast than those of other EU countries, more affected among other things by the Russian gas cuts.

The downward revision implies that the Spanish economy will take a little longer to recover pre-pandemic levels, something that institutions such as the Spanish national central bank or the IMF (International Monetary Fund) placed in the second half of 2023. But it is still far from being a recession.

Until September, the Spanish economy has shown quite a bit of resistance despite the soaring inflation. The complete reopening of tourism and hospitality services after the pandemic has given a strong boost to activity in recent months, something that conveys optimism, hope and also security for foreign investors in Spain.

The complete reopening of tourism and hospitality services after the pandemic has given a strong boost to activity in recent months.