Spain’s GDP remains -3.2% below pre-pandemic levels, after its historic fall in 2020 (-10.8%). It is last in the EU in terms of GDP recovery and also in terms of business profits: Spanish companies are some 11 points below the European average and, together with Portugal (-6.3%), Spain is the country showing the worst rate of recovery in business profits, which are still 6.2% below pre-covid levels, according to the Institute of Economic Studies (IEE).
According to the IEE’s short-term report, in the accumulated years 2020 and 2021 there has been a loss of almost 100,000 million euros (almost 65,000 in 2020 and 34,000 in 2021).
In almost all European countries, the Gross Operating Surplus (GOS) has not only recovered its pre-crisis levels, but has exceeded them “by far”, according to the IEE. For example, in the EU-27 as a whole, Gross Operating Surplus (GOS) is already 5% above the level at the end of 2019, and in the case of Ireland – another exceptional case, but on the positive side – this indicator is up to 26% above pre-crisis levels.
