The stars appear to be aligning for Spain’s economy after catastrophic 2020 – EURACTIV.com

The Spanish economy appears to be recovering faster than expected after a catastrophic 2020 marked by the coronavirus pandemic, with the latest forecasts pointing to robust growth in 2022 and 2023. Reports from EURACTIV partner EFE.

On Tuesday, the Spanish Socialist Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, stressed that “the first quarter of 2022 will be the first with a level of economic activity higher than that recorded in the first quarter of 2019”, reported EFE.

Spain “will return to the level of economic activity and daily employment before the pandemic before the end of the year,” Calviño stressed during the press conference following a meeting of the Council of ministers.

At the same time, the Bank of Spain also raised its growth forecast this year by a tenth of a percentage point, to 6.3% due to the better-than-expected performance of the second quarter.

This improvement in Spanish GDP, combined with the positive effect of the EU’s Next Generation funds, will allow the Spanish economy to grow by 5.9% in 2022 (one tenth more than estimated in June) and by 2 % in 2023 (two tenths more), according to macroeconomic projections for the Spanish economy 2021-2023 published by the bank on Tuesday.

Optimism in the OECD

The OECD has also revised upwards its forecasts for the Spanish economy and is even more optimistic than the government: Spain should expect growth of 6.8%, nine tenths more than what ‘it had anticipated at the end of May and probably the highest in the OECD member countries.

In its interim Outlook report presented on Tuesday, the international organization far exceeds the most recent forecast of 6.1% of the Spanish executive for 2021, but also the 6.2% that had been estimated in July both by the Commission European Union than by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

[Edited by Frédéric Simon]