The Spanish economy it grew by 5.5% in 2022, the same as in 2021, after recording a quarterly rise of 0.2% in the fourth quarter of the year, the same percentage as in the previous quarter, according to the advance data published by the National Accounts this friday for National Statistics Institute (INE). In this way, the Spanish economy chained its second consecutive annual growth in 2022 after the 5.5% increase it registered in 2021 and which meant a return to positive rates after the historic drop in GDP of 11.3% caused by the irruption of the coronavirus.
The GDP growth of 5.5% registered in 2022 is 1.1 points higher than the growth forecast for the Government for said exercise (4.4%) and is above the projections of some organizations such as the FMI (5.2%), the panel of Funcas (5%) and the Bank of Spain (4.6%). The First Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, He had already warned that the Executive’s forecast was going to fall short and that growth in 2022 would be above 5%.
His department highlighted this Friday that the growth of 5.5% in 2022 has been achieved “in an international context of great uncertainty”, marked by the consequences of the war in Russia in Ukraine, which shows the “great strength and resilience” of the Spanish economy. National demand contributed 2.8 points to GDP growth in 2022, a figure 2.4 points lower than that of 2021, while external demand contributed 2.6 points, 2.3 points above the previous year, “thanks to the dynamism of exports”, according to Economy.
In the case of domestic demand, the Ministry He highlights that “it has withstood the impact of inflation and the rise in costs well”, with growth in private consumption and investment of more than 4%. At current prices, GDP for 2022 stood at 1,328,922 million euros, 10.1% more than in 2021. “Spain has practically recovered the level of GDP prior to the pandemic,” underlines the Department that directs Nadia Calvino.
On a year-on-year basis, the GDP in the fourth quarter grew by 2.7%, which is 2.1 points less than in the previous quarter (4.8%), due, above all, 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 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 data preview has been less than on previous occasions.
This fact, he specifies, together with the difficulty that a change in the situation such as the crisis of the Covid, “provides that future revisions of the results published today may be of a larger magnitude than usual”. The advance data of the INE it is prepared with the information available up to November in most cases, although it has also included estimates of indicators for the month of December based on administrative data and other additional sources.
