The umpteenth retrospective revision of Spain’s growth data released this Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE) has once again improved the picture for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023, and has rescued €36.4 billion of last year’s GDP that the initial measurement had not detected, therefore raising the real economic growth for 2023 from 2.5% to 2.7%.
According to this new statistical correction, the National Gross Domestic Product approached €1.5 trillion in 2023. As a consequence of this upward adjustment, the reference indicators for the fiscal imbalances of Spanish public administrations will now show a somewhat improved picture. The public debt, which had initially closed last year at 107.7% of GDP, is now corrected to 105%, which is precisely the target set by the Government for 2024; while the public deficit of 3.63% of GDP is now reduced to 3.54%, shortening the distance to reach 3%.
The new picture from the INE shows that Spain grew one point more than initially estimated, created 160,000 more jobs, and that per capita income – the indicator that is taking the longest to recover its pre-pandemic levels – grew by 2.5%.
