Spanish Economy Bouncing Back To Pre Pandemic Recovery
The Spanish economy is expected to bounce back to reach its pre-pandemic level by next year after better than expected figures released by the INE state stastistical office showed the economy grew by 2.8% in the second quarter.
The Spanish economy is on track to expand by 6.5% in 2021 and 7% in 2022 which would allow it to recover from the fall of 11% in 2020.
The Economy Minister, Nadia Calviño said the welcome figures were in line with expectations saying: “In 2022, Spain will recover its pre-pandemic activity and in 2023, it will return to the path of growth we had before the health crisis.”
Both the European Commission and the IMF forecasts expect Spain to have the highest growth in the EU and significantly ahead of the Big Three of Germany (4.1%), France (4.2%) and Italy (4.2%) in 2022.
The improvement in the economy is also having an effect on Spain´s job market where the number of people in employment rose by 464,900 in the second quarter, more than making up for the first quarter fall of 137,500 – a rise of 327,000 since the start of the year.
Just over a million jobs have been created over the last year although there are still 3.5 million people registered unemployed.
The minister said that by “this summer we could go back to employment levels similar to those before the pandemic,” and that the government was looking at raising the minimum wage should the economy continue on its upward path.
The government hopes that the triple effects of rising vaccinations, a rise in international tourist arrivals as well as the EU´s Recovery Fund will be instrumental in Spain´s post pandemic recovery.
