Alex Trelinski
SPAIN’S economy grew by 5.5% last year- the same rate as in 2021- according to figures released by the National Statistics Institute(INE) on Friday.
The 2022 rise was confirmed after the INE reported a 0.2% rise in GDP growth for the final quarter of last year.
Last year’s increase was 1.1% higher than predicted by the government and confirms two years of growth after GDP fell by 11.3% in 2020 due to the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.
The economy though still has not full recovered to volume levels seen before Covid struck.
Domestic demand contributed 3.1% to GDP growth in 2022, a figure 2.1% lower than that of 2021, while foreign demand contributed 2.4%- 2.1% above the previous year.
The high inflation rates registered in 2022, which exceeded double digits in the summer, led families to moderate their spending.
Therefore household consumption grew 4.5% last year, a rate that’s 1.5% lower than that of 2021.
Public spending contracted by 0.7% in 2022, recording its first annual decline since 2014, while investment soared by 4.6%, its biggest rise since 2018, when it rose by 6.3%.
