Vaccine Roll Out Brings Optimism For 2021 Bank Of Spain Report

The Bank of Spain provided some pre-Christmas cheer with it´s latest report for the country´s economic performance expectations in 2021.

The forecast sees a substantial recovery of as much as 8.6% for 2021 which if achieved would mean that Spain´s economy would have largely recovered it´s pre Covid position by early 2022.

The report underlines the figures reflect optimismistic expectations for the successful roll out of the government´s vaccine programme starting in January.

The Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, announced that Spain´s initial order of 20 million doses will cover 10 million people who will begin receiving their jabs in the New Year with additional orders to immunise as much as half of Spain´s 47 million population by the early summer.

With the vaccine programme in tandem with a decreasing infection rate it is hoped that those areas of the economy such as the tourism and transport sectors will recover.

The final figures are yet to be pubished for 2020 but the bank has a final quarter provision of -4% to 06% growth for the last quarter which may impact it´s present forecast of a 10.7% contraction for this year.

Unemployment is expected to remain high however, with a forecast range of 17 to 20% being the highest rate in the European Union.

The bank also published the latest borowing figures showing a debt to GDP ratio of 114.3% – the highest in Spain´s history.