Spanish Economy Grew By 0.4% In Third Quarter

Spain continues to see growth above the Eurozone average. Gross national income and gross national disposable income grew by 3.4% year-on-year and the savings rate of households stands at 6.4%.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the Spanish economy grew by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of 2019, according to the figures published by the National Statistics Institute (Spanish acronym: INE). Spain has thus enjoyed 24 straight quarters of back-to-back growth.

Spain also continues to enjoy growth at a higher rate than the Eurozone average. In quarter-on-quarter terms, the growth of the Spanish economy is double that posted in the Eurozone (0.4% compared with 0.2%). In year-on-year terms, GDP grew by 1.9%, 0.7% higher than the rate of 1.2% posted in the Eurozone.

The contribution from domestic demand rose in the third quarter and contributed 1.8 points to the year-on-year growth of GDP, with a higher contribution from its main components. Final consumption expenditure increased by 1.6% on the same quarter of 2018, while gross capital formation rose by 2.8% year-on-year.

In the third quarter, external demand contributed 0.1 points to GDP growth as a result of heightened exports of both goods and services, which posted a year-on-year increase of 3%, with growth in imports of 3.1%.

The INE figures show that job creation grew by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of the year, and by 1.8% year-on-year. This increase has led to the creation of 322,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the last year. The remuneration of salaried workers has risen by 4.5% year-on-year as a result of the 2.3% increase in the number of workers and the 2.2% average pay rise per worker.

Quarterly non-financial accounts of institutional sectors

The INE also published the non-financial accounts of the institutional sectors. According to these figures published by the INE on Monday, the Spanish economy posted a financing capacity vis-à-vis the rest of the world of 8.06 billion euros in the third quarter of 2019. Once seasonally-adjusted, the financing capacity of the Spanish economy stands at 1.7% of GDP.

Gross national income rose by 3.4% on the same period of the previous year, to stand at 305.52 billion euros, while gross disposable national income also rose by 3.4% year-on-year, to amount to 301.96 billion euros.

After being seasonally-adjusted, the savings rate of households stood at 6.4% of their gross disposable income in the third quarter.