Catalan short-term economic indicators

The Catalan economy is accelerating and growing at a dynamic pace. During the second quarter of 2015, GDP saw a quarter-on-quarter increase of 0.9% and year-on-year growth accelerating to 3%, the fastest pace since Q3 2007. In Spain GDP shows a similar evolution to that of Catalonia, with a year-on-year growth of 3.1% the second quarter of 2015. The Catalan economy is surging forward at a stronger pace than the average of the euro area, which has seen 1.2% year-on-year growth during the second quarter.

In 2014, the Catalan GDP stood at ¤209,282m, greater than that of Finland, Greece and Portugal, and slightly below Denmark.

Evolució del PBI

Source: www.idescat.cat

Domestic demand is consolidating its recovery with a strong 2.9% year-on-year growth during the first quarter of 2015. The contribution of the domestic demand to growth of GDP was 2.6 percentage points. By components, the most notable is the growth in private consumption and gross capital formation (3.3% in both cases). Regarding the external balance, total exports (goods and services) increased by 5.9%, and total imports by 7.3%.

El portal gencat té un disseny adaptatiu

Source: www.idescat.cat

The Catalan job market is creating employment at a fast pace. In July, the number of Social Security contributors grew quickly, at a year-on-year rate of 3.2%, with increases across all the major job sectors. It should be noted that the unemployment rate increased sharply due to the crisis (it reached maximum values in 2013), but thanks to the strong job creation it is gradually being reduced and stood at 19.1% during the second quarter of 2015.

El portal gencat té un disseny adaptatiu

Source: www.idescat.cat

The industrial production index continues its positive trend and increased by 2.8% in Catalonia in June 2015 (corrected for seasonal effects). Energy (+8%) and equipment goods (+5.3%) saw especially high growth. In Spain, the corrected industrial production index grew by a year-on-year 4.8%.

El portal gencat té un disseny adaptatiu

Source: www.idescat.cat

Exports confirm their upward trend after recording 7.2% growth during the first six months of the year compared to the same period of the previous year. In particular, exports in June rose by a year-on-year 15.2%, driven by the sales in the automotive and chemicals sectors. It should be noted that Catalan exports account for 25.5% of total overseas sales by Spain.

The European Union is Catalonia?s chief international market. Exports to the EU account for 64.7% of total international exports of goods by the Catalan economy

El portal gencat té un disseny adaptatiu

Source: IDESCAT and AEAT

Catalan inflation remains in positive terms for the third consecutive month: in July it was a year-on-year 0.4%, after having been negative since last November to April. In year-on-year terms, there was only a fall of transports (-3.5%) and communications (-0.6%). The highest increases were seen in other goods and services (2.1%) and food and non-alcoholic beverages (1.8%).

El portal gencat té un disseny adaptatiu

Source: www.idescat.cat