Spain's Economy Set To Lead EU Recovery With GDP Predicted To Grow By 5.6% In 2022
Spain News
Published: 10 February 2022 15:23 CET
The Spanish economy is set to get a boost in 2022 with the latest reports from the European Commission predicting a rise in GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
In their latest macroeconomic forecasts for the country, the commission predicts economic growth of 5.6% this year with a further rise of 4.4% in 2023.
However, finance experts from Brussels believe that it won’t be all plain sailing stating that there will still be “considerable adverse circumstances” due to a resurgence in Covid infections and the impact it will have on the labour market.
It is expected that the first quarter of 2022 will see a minimal growth of around 0.6% with the economy regaining its momentum from the second quarter.
By the end of 2022, the forecast is that the Spanish economy will have recovered its GDP to pre-pandemic levels.
The IMF takes a similar view to Brussels, forecasting that Spain’s economy will have a positive growth of 5.8% in 2022 and 3.8% in 2023.
The predictions are slightly less than the Spanish government’s own forecast back in September 2021 which projected growth of around 7%.
Nadia Calviño (pictured), Spain’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation was upbeat about the commission's report declaring that Spain “will be the engine of the European economy in 2022 and 2023”.
If the predictions are correct, it will mean that Spain will be Europe’s second best country in terms of economic growth in 2022, only be surpassed by the growth of Malta.
The news will be a huge relief for Spanish businesses which saw the countries economic output contract by 10.8% in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic with the tourism sector hit especially hard.
Last year, the country’s GDP barely recovered reaching only 5% compared to the government’s forecast of 6.5%. This was less than the Eurozone average of 5.3%.
For example, Greece's economy fell by 9% in 2020, but in 2021 it rebounded by 8.5%, while Italy's sank by 8.9% and rebounded by 6.5% the following year.
In the report released by the Commission, the department expects Spain’s economic growth to "gain momentum" from the second quarter of the year, with quarterly growth "above 1%" until the beginning of 2023.
Private consumption and investment will be the main drivers of economic growth stating, "The savings accumulated during the pandemic and the recent rises in pensions will support consumption and the recovery plan will support investment," the document says.
Source
https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/4954602/0/espana-sera-la-segunda-economia-de-la-ue-que-mas-crezca-en-2022-tras-un-2021-peor-de-lo-esperado/
https://spainsnews.com/brussels-improves-the-growth-of-spain-to-5-6-this-year-but-it-is-far-from-the-optimism-of-the-government/
https://then24.com/2022/02/10/brussels-slightly-improves-growth-forecasts-for-spain/
Image Credit: La Moncloa Flickr
