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. These two sectors represent almost 91% of Spain’s GDP with agriculture’s share today representing a 2.92% of GDP, having declined sharply as a result of the country’s economic growth (see Table 4).

Table 4

The Spanish economy continued throughout 2019 to reflect the growth trend which began in the second half of 2013. During the fourth quarter of 2019, the GDP grew at a quarter-on-quarter rate of 0.4%¹³. Thus, the year-on-year growth of the GDP amounted to 1.8%, which is higher than the growth rate recorded for the Eurozone as a whole in 2019.

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 2019 was 0.8%, due mainly to the increase in fuel prices and, albeit to a lesser degree, to the rise in air transport prices, well as to the drop in electricity prices.

Table 5