Spain’s GDP has surpassed its pre-pandemic level, driven primarily by a strong increase in exports and investment that offset the decline in household consumption. This external dynamism has positioned the national economy as the fastest-growing within the European Union, highlighting its resilience in the face of the widespread slowdown and technical recession that affected the euro area during the same period. Inflation and rising interest rates have continued to pressure households’ spending capacity, generating sustained tension in domestic demand. Despite this adverse scenario, the positive contribution of external demand and public spending has maintained an expansionary trajectory, enabling the economy not only to fully recover but also to record several consecutive quarters of real growth. This report is relevant to the open data field because it exemplifies how the periodic publication of official statistics by the National Statistics Institute (INE) allows civil society, researchers, and independent application developers to transparently analyze the economy’s health in real time. Open access to these indicators facilitates the validation of hypotheses regarding the impact of monetary and external policies, promoting a more informed citizenry and evidence-based decision-making grounded in verifiable data.

Source:
Published on 2023-06-24