The . According to the progress published on Wednesday, the INE, in 2024 grew 3.2%, in full European atony and accelerating with respect to the 2.7% recorded the previous year. Household consumption has been recovering according to inflation, salaries rise about 5% on average and important public aid designed to alleviate the impact of prices. The update that was made of 8.5%pensions has also contributed, which has also caused the savings to rise. And three have been the main engines: on the one hand, a tourism in record figures and a hospitality driven with an unusual force after the pandemic despite raising prices a lot. On the other, the very strong arrival of immigrants, which has compensated for the decrease in the native population due to aging, covering the needs of vacancies. According to the Active Population Survey, of the 468,000 jobs created last year, only 59,000 were occupied by nationals. 88% of the employment created is due to foreign workers or dual nationality. And finally, public consumption, which has continued to rise, especially for autonomies, even after the strong increase that lived with the pandemic, supported by the dynamism of public income from inflation.
The least positive side of this growth pattern is that productivity does not take off as it would be desirable, although it finally grows after several stagnant years. After all, tourism, immigration and public consumption are not characterized by pushing productivity. The other negative note and that also explains that poorest behavior of productivity is the march of private investment, which has been the most lagging chapter in the recovery of the pandemic despite European funds and that companies present some accounts SANNED. While this rubric also begins to rebound in the last data in a context in which interest rates have begun to descend and strengthening robust growth.
Growing partly by force of adding population, GDP per capita suffers and does not advance with the same fortress as the whole economy. And the same happens with per capita consumption, still weighed by inflation and types of types. This evolution explains that some parts of the population still feel that recovery is not as strong as it is appreciated in large numbers.
Regarding the fourth quarter, the economy added a robust 0.8% quarterly, pushed by the consumption of families, which shoots 1% quarterly, and for investment, which increases 2.8% between November and December, its December, its greater increase in three years. This finally takes off in a more favorable environment. In the next quarters it should be favored by a growth of the Spanish economy far superior to the European average, which does not even reach 1% per year due to the weakness of Germany and France. This differential growth should attract more investment. On the other hand, public consumption and exports slow down in the quarter. The foreign sector has even contributed negatively to the activity.
Despite the DANA, the whole activity has barely affected. In addition, the improvement of car sales in December for the disaster claims has compensated part of the lower industrial activity in harmed areas.
