- 1Spain: An attractive country for investment
- 2Setting up a business in Spain
- 3 Tax System
- 4 Investment aid and incentives in Spain
- 5 Labor and social security regulations
- 6 Intellectual property law
- 7Legal framework and tax implications of e-commerce in Spain
- AI Annex I Company and Commercial Law
- AIIAnnex II The Spanish financial system
- AIIIAnnex IIIAccounting and audit issues
- Introduction
- The country, its people and quality of life
- Spain and the European Union
- Infrastructure
- Economic structure
- Domestic Market
- Foreign trade and investment
- Legislation on foreign investment and exchange control
- Obligations in relation to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing
5. Economic structure
The structure of the Spanish economy is that of a developed country, with the services sector being the main contributor to GDP, followed by industry. In 2020, these two sectors represented, almost 91% of Spain’s GDP, with agriculture’s share today representing 3.44% of the total GDP, having declined sharply as a result of the country’s economic growth (see Table 4).
Table 4
STRUCTURE OF GDP (% OF TOTAL, CURRENT PRICES)Sector | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
---|---|---|---|
Agriculture and fishery | 3.05% | 2.88% | 3.44% |
Industry | 16.12% | 16.15% | 16.30% |
Construction | 6.11% | 6.43% | 6.16% |
Services | 74.72% | 74.54% | 74.10% |
Throughout 2020 the impact of the COVID-19 public health crisis was felt by the Spanish economy due, principally, to the implementation of measures to contain the pandemic. This entailed a change with respect to the growth trend which began in the second half of 2013. Nonetheless, during the fourth quarter of 2020, the GDP improved its projections for recovery by recording a variation of 0.4%12 in the quarter-on-quarter rate with respect to the preceding quarter in terms of volume. Thus, although the year-on-year growth of the GDP amounted to -9.1%13, the projections made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show a recovery of the Spanish economy in 2021 and 2022, with respect to the downturn seen in 2020, boosted by the approval of the vaccines and the backing of political recovery measures.
Moreover, inflation in Spain has been falling slowly since the end of the 1980s. Average inflation between 1987 and 1992 was 5.8%; it dropped below 5% for the first time in 1993, and it has been shrinking gradually since then. The year-on-year inflation rate at December 2020 was -0.5%, three tenths above that recorded in the preceding month, due mainly to a drop in the prices of tour packages and of food and non-alcoholic beverages. On the other hand, the positive influence on the evolution of the annual rate relates to the increase in electricity, heating oil and fuel prices, which have recovered positively in the housing and transport groups.
Table 5
GROWTH FOR OECD COUNTRIES (%)Real GDP Growth |
|||
---|---|---|---|
2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
EU countries | |||
Germany | 1.3 | 0.6 | -5.3 |
France | 1.8 | 1.5 | -8.2 |
Italy | 0.8 | 0.3 | -8.9 |
United Kingdom | 1.3 | 1.4 | -9.9 |
Spain | 2.4 | 2.0 | -11.0 |
Other countries | |||
United States | 3.0 | 2.2 | -3.5 |
Japan | 0.6 | 0.3 | -4.8 |
Total Euro Zone | 1.9 | 1.3 | -6.8 |
Total OECD | 2.4 | 1.6 | -4.9 |
12National Institute of Statistics, Quarterly National Accounts of Spain. Principal Aggregates. Fourth Quarter of 2020.
13National Institute of Statistics, Quarterly National Accounts of Spain. Principal Aggregates, Fourth Quarter of 2020.