The Spanish economy slowed during the third quarter of the year after growing by 0.6% in the first quarter and 0.5% in the second and advanced only by 0.3%, according to the data on the progress of the National Accounting published this Friday by INE . In this way the Spain’s economic growth rate fell to 1.8%, from 4.1% where the year began, as expected by analysts, predicting a semester close to stagnation.
the unique summer tourist campaign This year, in which Spain has almost recovered the level of foreign tourist arrivals and spending before the pandemic, hides the economic slowdown. Final household consumption expenditure increased by 1.4% in July and September, which was higher than the rest of the year and showed the best figure in a year.
Behind private consumption and contrary to what happened in recent months, internal demand contributed 1.7% to growth, while external demand, which has been the pillar supporting the Spanish economy during their recovery after the pandemic barely made 0.2. %, which shows the weak growth in the countries that make up our main markets export: the eurozone. Exports and imports have shown a lower evolution compared to the situation a year ago.
INE data revealed that in the third quarter the subsector that showed the most dynamic behavior was leisure and entertainment activities, which grew no less than 11.9% in the quarter. Investment, on the other hand, fell 0.8%. Among the sectors, activity in agriculture, industry and construction fell in the third quarter, and The service sector drives the economya.
More work, even with shorter days
Employment continues to show strength. Full-time jobs grew 2.4% in the third quarter, two points more than the previous quarter. Last year, the Spanish economy generated, according to advanced data from INE published this Friday, 678,000 new jobs and proved a growth of 3.5%, much higher than the economy. Statistics assure that this behavior is explained “by the combined effect of the change in working hours and the reduction of the average working day of full-time jobs,” according to the released note.
In this context, the salaries of employees grew more than business surpluses, 8.2% compared to 7.9%, as a result of the 3.9% growth in the number of employees and 4.2% of their average salaryslightly lower than 5.2% in the previous quarter.
In a note released early this morning, the Ministry of Economic Affairs described the growth in the third quarter as “very remarkable” and emphasized that this data confirms “the differential growth in Spain about the main countries of the euro zone”.
