Spanish economic growth reached 0.7% in the second quarter, thanks to a strong increase in exports and business investment, according to a first estimate published Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
This figure is up compared to the first quarter (0.6%), and is greater than the expectations of the Spanish bank, which provided for an increase in gross domestic product (GDP) between 0.5%and 0.6%.
It confirms the dynamism of the fourth economy in the euro zone, where growth reached 3.2% last year, against only 1% throughout the European Union, according to Eurostat.
According to the INE, the growth of the second quarter was driven by exports, which increased by 1.1% compared to the previous quarter, despite the effects of the trade war launched by the increase in American customs duties.
It was also boosted by the investment of companies, which jumped by 2.1%, and by the consumption of households, which increased by 0.8%.
“Spain maintains its dynamism and is consolidated among the strongest advanced savings,” reacted in a message on X the Spanish Minister of the Economy, Carlos Cuerpo.
The second quarter figure places Spain in a comfortable position to reach the 2.6% growth expected this year by the government of the socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
This forecast is close to that of the International Monetary Fund, which has revised its growth expectations for Spain at 2.5% (+0.2 point) in mid-April, despite the increase in customs duties decided by Donald Trump.
The impact on the growth of this commercial showdown, which led to an agreement around a 15% tax on Sunday on European products exported to the United States, should not be “significant” in 2025, had assured Carlos Cuerpo in mid-June.
Spain’s exhibition is indeed “compared to low compared to several of our European partners, because barely 5% of Spanish exports are towards the United States”, he recalled.
According to Mr. Cuerpo, Spain should nevertheless undergo “the indirect effects” of this trade war, because of its repercussions on the growth of the entire European Union.
Posted on July 29 at 9:29 a.m., AFP