The Spanish economy grew by 5.5% in 2022, the same as in 2021, after recording a quarterly increase of 0.2% in the last quarter of the year, the same percentage as in the previous quarter, according to the advance National Accounts data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
In 2022, the Spanish economy thus chained its second consecutive annual growth in 2022 after the 5.5% increase recorded in 2021, which meant a return to positive rates after the historic decline in GDP of 11.3% caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus.
The GDP growth of 5.5% recorded in 2022 exceeds the government’s growth forecast for that year (4.4%) by 1.1 points and is above the projections of some organisations such as the IMF (5.2%), the Funcas panel (5%) and the Bank of Spain (4.6%).
The First Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, had already warned that the Executive’s forecast was going to fall short and that growth in 2022 would be above 5%.
Her Department has highlighted this Friday that the 5.5% growth in 2022 has been achieved «in an international context of great uncertainty», marked by the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which shows the «great strength and resilience» of the Spanish economy.
Domestic demand contributed 2.8 points to GDP growth in 2022, 2.4 points lower than in 2021, while external demand contributed 2.6 points, 2.3 points above the previous year, «thanks to the dynamism of exports», according to Economía.
In the case of domestic demand, the Ministry highlights that «it has withstood the impact of inflation and rising costs well», with private consumption and investment growing by more than 4%.
At current prices, GDP in 2022 stood at €1,328,922 million, 10.1% more than in 2021. «Spain has practically recovered the GDP level prior to the pandemic», stresses the Department headed by Nadia Calviño.
In year-on-year terms, GDP in the fourth quarter grew by 2.7%, which is 2.1 points less than in the previous quarter (4.8%), mainly due to a lower contribution from domestic demand.
Specifically, the contribution of national demand to year-on-year GDP growth was 0.6 points, 2 points less than in the third quarter of 2022, while external demand contributed 2.1 points, one tenth of a point less.
In any case, the INE explains that for various reasons related to the availability calendar of some of the sources used in the last quarter of the year, the volume of information provided in this Friday’s advance data has been less than on previous occasions.
This fact, it specifies, together with the difficulty that a change in the economic situation, such as the Covid crisis, has meant for statistical measurement, «leads us to foresee that future surveys will not be able to provide the same information as on previous occasions».
