Spain recorded the second highest annual GDP growth rate in the EU between July and September. The Spanish economy grew 0.2% in the third quarter, preventing it from falling into a technical recession in 2022.
The growth of Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP) slowed in the third quarter of the year, at 0.2%. This was well down from the 1.5% recorded between April and June. However, it was equal to that of the eurozone and the EU, Eurostat announced on Monday. ‘These data show the resilience of the Spanish and European economies. Moreover, they have continued to grow even with the Russian gas cut-off,’ said sources from Spain’s economy ministry.
The Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) had predicted last week that GDP growth would be only 0.2% compared to the previous quarter. Despite the stagnation, this figure prevents Spain from falling into a technical recession in 2022. That means two consecutive quarters of contraction in economic activity.
How did other countries perform?
In the same vein, France also recorded an expansion of 0.2%, three tenths less than in the second quarter. Also, Germany recorded growth of 0.3%, two tenths more than between April and June. However, Portugal and Lithuania (0.4%), Italy (0.5%) and Sweden (0.7%), which tops the list of countries (where data available), fared better.
Despite the slight growth, this 0.2% average represents the lowest growth rate for the euro area since the first quarter of 2021. The same EU average also represents a 0.7% slowdown in the previous three months. Once again, this is the worst record since the first quarter of 2021. However, compared to July, August and September last year, GDP grew by 2.1% in the euro area and 2.4% in the EU.
Second highest annualised growth within EU
Ministerial sources report that Spain’s annualised economic growth in the third quarter (3.8%) was almost 2 percentage points higher than the eurozone average growth of 2.1%. ‘Spain’s economy was the second with the highest annualised growth in the EU in the third quarter,’ they point out, behind Portugal’s 4.9% annualised growth.
These data were released on the same day that Eurostat released the eurozone’s annualised inflation rate for October, which continued its upward trend and reached a new record of 10.7%, 0.8% higher than in September.
Also read: Spain was the first EU country where inflation fell most sharply in September
