Spanish Economy Grew By 2.6% In 2018, Above Previous Estimates

The Spanish economy registered Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 2.6% in 2018, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (Spanish acronym: INE). This rate is 0.1 points higher than the INE’s previous advance forecast and agrees with the Government’s projection included in the draft General State Budget for 2019.

The published figures demonstrate that the Spanish economy is continuing to outperform the Eurozone, which closed 2018 with growth of 1.8%, 0.8 points less than the figure for Spain.

Domestic demand contributed 2.5 points to GDP in the fourth quarter, 0.2 points down on the previous quarter. By components, gross fixed capital formation continues to be buoyant, with growth of 4.4%. Final consumption expenditure has grown by 2% year-on-year, boosted by increased household consumption to 2% and a rise in government expenditure to 2.2%.

In an internationally uncertain scenario, foreign demand made a similar contribution as in the previous quarter, with a negative year-on-year impact on growth of 0.2 percentage points. Both imports and exports continue to grow, although the rates have slowed to 1% and 1.7% respectively in year-on-year terms.

Job creation remains positive, with a year-on-year increase of 2.6% in the fourth quarter. As a result, 469,000 full-time equivalent jobs were created in 2018.

Compensation per employee grew by 1.1% in the fourth quarter as a year-on-year rate, meaning that the increase in unit labour costs was 1.3% year-on-year.