The EU umbrella ensures Spain's development | EUROtoday

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BARCELONA – «To clarify the Spanish financial system's capability to withstand and perceive why on this part its development is larger than that of the opposite giant European economies, we have to have a look at Europe», says Pedro Videla, economist on the Iese Business School.

«Europe for Spain has been a safety, a assure of credibility and now – provides Videla – it’s a driver of growth: let's have a look at the final fifteen years, within the worldwide monetary disaster, in that of the Eurozone, within the face of the collapse of the Iberian banking system, Madrid has at all times been in a position to depend on the help of the EU and the safety of the ECB on the monetary markets. And the identical occurred within the pandemic after which in investments for the restoration: additionally via the budgetary freedom that the EU has granted to encourage the restoration”.

For reasons also linked to its political history, Spain – in its institutions and population – has always been in great harmony with the European Union project: no Eurosceptic party has ever been part of the majority coalition; and governments – whether right-wing like those of the popular Mariano Rajoy or left-wing like the socialist Pedro Sanchez, still in office – have always done everything to maintain relaxed relations with Brussels even in times of difficulty, adding European aspirations of principle to economic advantages deriving from European policies.

The latest data

In the first quarter of this year, Spain's economy – according to data from INE, the National Statistics Office – grew by 0.7% compared to the previous three months: an expansion well above expectations and more than double the GDP increase recorded in the Eurozone, significantly higher than that of Germany, France and Italy. «In the last two years in Spain there has been greater dynamism in exports, private and public consumption, which grew by 24.1, 10.7 and 5.2 percentage points respectively», says Rafael Domenech of Bbva Research.

A strong push came from the rebirth of tourist flows from abroad after the pandemic and from Spain's status as a safe destination, they explain to INE, recalling that tourism is now worth more than 13% of GDP. «The energy crisis has had a limited impact in Spain; the implementation of the NextGenerationEU European funds also had an impact; a further element – argues Domenech – has to do with immigration which has allowed the Spanish population to grow by 2.5% in two years, almost two points above the EU total”.