The Eternal Problem Of Spain’s Productivity
The problem in Spain’s economy: it’s that productivity is hardly apparent in the breakdown of GDP between the amount of work (number of hours worked) and the residue, which is productivity.
The problem in Spain’s economy: it’s that productivity is hardly apparent in the breakdown of GDP between the amount of work (number of hours worked) and the residue, which is productivity.
The latest batch of economic growth numbers corroborate a picture which we started to see last year, namely that the extent of the Eurozone recovery is widening. Germany is no longer the sole growth driver. Countries like Spain are catching up.
The January update of the IMF’s “World Economic Outlook”, published in October, confirms that Spain will recover this year all the GDP growth lost during the economic crisis, exceeding in 2017 for the first time the volume of growth in 2008.
Spain’s socialist party PSOE doesn’t seem to be too worried about the fact the country may not have a 2017 Budget. But it’s increasingly clear to all of us that the lack of a budget will not be without a cost. On the contrary, it will greatly affect a large part of Spanish society. Almost all economists believe that the impossibility of drawing up new accounts, and updating certain items, could mean that the amount spent on civil servants’ salaries will be maintained.
In 2015, the Eurozone once again saw positive credit flows and a recovery in credit balance rates as a result of new transactions. But volumes are still well off pre-crisis maximum levels. In Spain, what does limit credit demand is the fact that companies have had positive financing capacity for the last seven years, which means that those with less debt have a strong self-financing buffer.