Alex Trelinski
THE OECD says Spain’s economy will grow even faster in 2025 and 2026- upgrading last December’s forecast.
It added in its interim Outlook report published on Monday that the country was in a stronger position than the rest of the EU to deal with the fallout from new US tariffs imposed by Donald Trump.
The OECD has increased Spain’s growth forecast by 0.3% to 2.6% this year, in line with government forecasts.
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The projection for 2026 is a 2.2% rise.
In contrast, growth figures for European countries including France, Germany and Italy have been downgraded.
Though the OECD does not give a detailed analysis into why Spain is doing better than its neighbours, it suggests that falling unemployment is a factor.
Figures for last February were the lowest for the second month of the year since 2008.
Record numbers of workers are registered with Social Security in the country, which the government attributes to securer employment contracts as a result of labour law reforms.
In the G20 countries as a whole, inflation will fall from 3.8% in 2025 to 3.2% in 2026.
Spain’s rate is significantly lower with the OECD predicting 2.5% this year, falling slightly to 2.1% in 2026.
Core inflation- which excludes volatile elements such as energy and food. Will go from 2.8% in 2024 to 2.2% in 2025 and 1.9% in 2026.
The forecast is significantly lower than the eurozone average for the next two years.
The OECD said that by the end of 2024, Spain was one of few the G20 countries in which real wages were above levels before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
