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| Everything is looking Rosie for Spain |
If you were to keep a close eye on the Spanish economy, the
recovery might appear to be a little slow. With the benefit of hindsight
however, we see that the impressive economic turnaround the country has seen
since 2014 is nothing short of special.
Spain is still suffering from low wage growth and a high
unemployment rate, but you would have had your hand bitten off if you’d offered
the 2016 economic data of the country to anyone – from bank manager and
financial analyst to average Joe on the street – from 2010.
Spain saw a welcome increase of 3.2% GDP for two years in a
row, and has now reached the point where it is doing far more than just
recovering from the double dip recession. Spain is currently on course towards becoming a shining economic beacon of light in the EU.
The latest data published by the National Statistics
Institute (INE) this week shows that the Spanish economy grew 0.7% over last
year during the fourth quarter of 2016. This economic success was fuelled by
the success seen in tourism, exports, and industry.
This performance at the end of the year continued the trend
that has seen 24 months of sustained economic growth. It’s thanks to this
growth that Spain has entered the top three for Eurozone economies. The country
has come a long way since the days between 2008-2013 when unemployment rates
went out of control, the youth fled the country in the thousands, and everyone
responded with scepticism at the prospect of economic recovery.
Things have certainly changed. There is still a high
unemployment rate (over 16%) but Prime Minister Rajoy and his labour reforms
are helping stem the tide and improve the job market. Spain is also seeing the
benefits of the economic recover across the rest of Europe, in particular the
boost to Spanish tourism and real estate thanks to all the foreign money
flowing in.
Economists in Malta are expecting this year to see a growth
of between 2.5-2.7%, which might not be as much as in previous years, but is
still a sign of the solidity that would have been just a pipedream four years
ago.
Around 74,000 new jobs were created each month in 2016, and
it’s expected Spain could see similar results this year. Spanish economy
minister Luis de Guindos said that quarterly growth could be similar to what
was seen last year. Given that the country was dealing with political strife
last year and still experienced incredible growth, the estimates from
economists could prove themselves to be conservative. No matter what though,
it’s hard to deny that Spain has started 2017 as healthy as it's been for over10 years.
