Calay News
According to a new estimate by the National Statistics Institute (INE), Spain has recovered its pre-COVID-19 pandemic level of economic activity in the first quarter of this year, with growth slightly higher than initial estimates. The Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, highlighted that after three and a half years since the beginning of the health crisis, the country has recovered its pre-pandemic GDP level.
According to the INE, Spain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 0.6% between January and March, 0.1 points above initial estimates and 0.3 points above the Bank of Spain’s initial forecast. This figure, slightly higher than growth in the fourth quarter of 2022 (+0.5%), places Spain among the most dynamic countries in the euro zone, where GDP contracted by 0.1% in the last two quarters.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez celebrated Spain’s accelerated growth on Twitter, also highlighting the good performance of the labor market with the creation of 426,000 full-time jobs in the first quarter.
The Spanish government expects the strong performance at the start of the year to maintain a solid pace of growth in 2023, although it is expected to be lower than the 5.5% of 2021 and 2022. The 2023 budget sets a growth target of 2.1%. This estimate is more optimistic than that of the International Monetary Fund (1.5%), but more cautious than the Bank of Spain’s upward revision to 2.3%.
Until now, Spain was the only country in the European Union that had not recovered its pre-pandemic economic level due to its dependence on the tourism sector. However, its economic activity has withstood the slowdown resulting from the crisis in Ukraine better than that of other neighboring countries.
Despite these good economic results, polls place the conservative rival, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, as the favorite in the early legislative elections called by Pedro Sánchez on July 23, following the defeat of the left in the local and regional elections of May 28.
