The Spanish economy managed to resist the deterioration in the global economy last year. This put the country in a better position than was expected less than a year before the date of the legislative elections, in an indication that the fourth largest economy in the eurozone is on its way to avoid falling into the cycle of economic recession.
And the Statistics Office stated that the Spanish economic output rose by 2.2 percent in the last quarter of 2022, which is the same pace of growth that was achieved in the previous quarter, while economists polled by the “Bloomberg” news agency expected that the growth rate would reach quarterly to only 0.1 per cent.
And the Spanish growth rate reached 5.5 percent in the whole of 2022, according to a preliminary estimate published Friday by the National Institute of Statistics, especially due to the recovery of tourism, which is a strategic sector for Madrid, after the global health crisis that lasted for two years.
This ratio, which is higher than the government’s forecast of 4.4 per cent growth, and the Spanish Central Bank at 4.6 per cent, puts Spain at the forefront of the most dynamic countries in the European Union, where the European Commission expects average growth of 3.3 per cent.
“Given the current situation, Spain is doing very well,” especially compared to “other large European economies,” Rafael Pampion, professor of economics at the University of San Pablo in Madrid, told AFP. In an indication of the good economic situation, unemployment recorded a slight decline and reached 12.87 percent last year.
A year ago, the situation seemed very bad for the fourth economic power in the eurozone, which is the most affected by the health crisis, with its GDP recording a historical decline of 10.8 percent in 2020.
Spain was the first country to be affected by inflation, due to its lack of electrical connection to the rest of Europe. This prevented competition from playing its role in influencing energy prices. In July, inflation peaked at 10.8 percent.
But Madrid has succeeded since then in curbing the rise in prices. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has pumped billions of euros into the Spanish economy in a bid to rein in inflation and prop up households and businesses in an election year when he is widely expected to run for re-election. Spain is also the second largest beneficiary after Italy of EU Resilience and Recovery Fund funds.
In December, Spanish inflation slowed to 5.7 percent, the lowest rate in the eurozone. However, inflation is expected to affect economic growth rates, as the latest estimates of the International Monetary Fund indicate that the Spanish economy is expected to grow by only 1.1 percent this year.
