Caitlin Quinn
AFTER a painful recession lasting almost a decade, Spain’s economy is finally on the mend.
In the second quarter of 2015, the unemployment rate registered its largest fall since 2005, thanks to the creation of more than 400,000 jobs between April and June.
And, the European Central Bank has reported Spain’s growth rate at a substantial 2.7%, one of the highest in the Eurozone.
In 2014, Spain’s GDP ranked fourteenth in the world, according to numbers published by the World Bank.
The top five GDPs in the world in 2014 were:
- United States
- China
- Japan
- Germany
- United Kingdom
I’m usually pretty sceptical about stories like this and Spain has had a few false dawns but I think the economy has finally turned the corner. Speeding white vans are back with a vengence and I have noticed quite a few new businesses opening up and people do seem to be spending more money. The increased tourist numbers have come at the right time and will also be a huge boost to the economy. Spain is still lagging behind the UK in terms of job creation but it could be so much worse, they could have ended up like Greece. Long may the recovery continue. All they need to do now is sort out the property laws and they will be there.
Jane your last sentence is paramount but I doubt they will ever sort property laws out, it needs regulation of agents, developers, any sold property to be guaranteed legal at point of sale, much lower transaction costs, much quicker court procedures, proper build quality on those mass urbanisations and definitely no ‘B’ money. Not once has Spain addressed these issues since the boom and bust they seem to have a mental block over it, or too many Politicians, Mayors, Juntas etc need their bungs to continue.
The best growing economy in the G7, UK will increase tourist numbers from there especially in the light of Tunisia and Greece.
Has Greece’s problems just been kicked down the road again, if so, doubts will remain in the EU and could derail recoveries or, at least make people hold-off from investment generally.
Spain does seem to have turned the corner but not in the property and construction side. Unemployment is going down…slowly. Despite this Andalucia still has an unemployment rat of 30%.
Expect more good news as it is election time in the Autumn. Grin.
Mike and Marion, you make some good points – see other story on here re the so called illegal properties.
The cost of buying property in Spain is far too high and the whole sector needs to be reformed to make it more competitive. If Spain wants their economy to be firing on all cylinders, they must address the illegal property issue and the also the high purchase taxes. How about offering some tax incentives to foreign buyers and, even better, how about exempting foreign residents from the dreaded Form 720 overseas asset declaration tax – this was set up to catch Spanish tax avoiders not deter foreign investors so change it.
Northern Europe has thousands of wealthy people who would like to buy property in Spain but they do not have the confidence to do so. Spain, it’s all there for the taking, you just need to change the property laws to something that works, give people the confidence to invest money in Spain and stop taxing people to death.
“The eurozone’s star performer is showing every other European economy how it’s done” and “Its growth rate is better even than the United Kingdom’s.” Of course this may be over stating the case, but certainly it’s good to see the Spanish economy growing and an extra 400,000 jobs being created each year. “http://uk.businessinsider.com/spanish-gdp-growth-q2-2015-7” Mind you I predicted a couple of years back the haters would use the following arguments in order 1- Spain won’t recover THEN 2- Ok there is some recovery but it’s far too little and THEN 3- Ok so they recovered but they was lucky..etc etc
Give us an English Quid – “Ok so they recovered but they was lucky..etc etc”
Really? You think a country with 22.37% of its population unemployed has ‘recovered’?
That’s 5.15 million people out of work in Spain as of July 2015.
Spain the Eurozone ‘Star’ as you put it has started to come back from a very, very low base in comparison to other European countries. The unemployment rate (which wouldn’t be accepted by the populace of any other western nation without huge riots and civil disobedience) of 22% is horrendous, and unemployment benefits to this percentage of the population is unsustainable. The fact is that Spain needs to find work for at least 3 million of the currently unemployed within the next 12 months. If this does not happen Spain will go the same way as Greece.
The economy of Spain is not in the rosy health you seem to think it is Give us an English Quid.
Good reply Ed to the deluded poster of many aliases who labels anyone disagreeing with his warped views as ‘haters’, yet he neither owns property nor lives in Spain. In fact his business bookshop model failed miserably in Madrid and was forced to close because he tried to undercut and offer what they couldn’t, but they were considerably large businesses. As a result he literally had to return to London to open a little bookshop from where he snipes on forums as to the state of the UK economy and property market. He has to rely on the UK in order to live but then dishes the Country which include his neighbours and customers. This is not normal behaviour for someone in business.
One last point is that he knows nothing of the CDS other than what he reads, nor it’s property market.