Wie die Wirtschaft Spaniens zum Neid Europas wurde

ss: increase in GDP of 3.2% last year.

By contrast, the German economy contracted by 0.2% in 2024, while France grew by 1.1%, Italy by 0.5%, and the UK by an expected 0.9%.

This all helps explain why the Economist magazine has ranked Spain as the world’s best-performing economy.

Mr Cuerpo also pointed to financial services, technology, and investment as factors which have helped Spain bounce back from the depths of the pandemic, when GDP shrank by 11% in one year.

„We are getting out of Covid without scars and by modernising our economy and therefore lifting our potential GDP growth,“ he adds. Spain is investing the money in the national rail system, low-emissions zones in towns and cities, as well as in the electric vehicle industry and subsidies for small businesses.

Madrid believes that subsidies it introduced to cut the cost of fuel consumption and encourage public transport use were key in mitigating the impact of the energy price rises, as well as several increases to the minimum wage.

Mr Cuerpo argues that such measures have helped counter Spain’s traditional vulnerability to economic turmoil.

„Spain is proving to be more resilient to successive shocks – including the inflation shock that came with the war in Ukraine,“ he said.

The country’s green energy output is seen as another favourable factor, not just in guaranteeing electricity, but also spurring investment. Although Spanish electric vehicle production is lagging behind the rest of Europe, he sees enormous potential in that area.

„[In Spain] we have all the factors you need to be successful: competitive, well-trained people and also an energy policy behind that,“ he says. „There’s no point in making zero-emission cars if you’re using dirty energy.“

Spain is enjoying its status as the motor of European growth.

I think its easier to lift up when your economy is already bad. Germany was so dependent on cheap energy imports from russia to be competetive. Now that competetion is gone it is suffering and other economies get a chance to pick up as the field is leveled.

In the Canaries you barely feel this at all. Things aren’t getting better (IMO) over there. Businesses are closing left and right and it’s still a struggle to find jobs. Even if you do the pay is ridiculously low