INE says 2020 fall in GDP 0.2% smaller

BarcelonaThe Spanish economy recorded a historic decline in GDP of 10.8% in 2020, according to data published on Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). The decline, however, is lower than the one that had advanced this organism at the end of January when the advanced data placed it at -11%, that is, two tenths more than the final data. Despite these two tenths, the downturn in the Spanish economy due to the pandemic was the deepest since the Civil War.

Thus, with the introduction of the latest indicators, the INE has updated the data for both the fourth quarter and the previous quarters of 2020. The revised data shows that quarterly growth in the summer months (July to September), when restrictions were first eased, was 17.1%, seven tenths higher than had been advanced, while in the fourth quarter the economy did not grow (0.0%) despite initial data pointing to a rise of 0.4%

On the other hand, the decline initially published for the first quarter of last year (-5.3%) was slightly higher, at 5.4%, while the estimate for the second quarter (-17.9%) has been moderated by one tenth of a percentage point and is now -17.8%.

Taking all this into account, the result is that the Spanish economy contracted in 2020, the year the covid pandemic broke out, by 10.8%, compared to 11% calculated previously. So far, apart from the period of the Civil War, the worst annual decline in GDP had been recorded in 2009, in the midst of the financial crisis, with a fall of 3.8%. The covid crisis has broken all records and 2020 has been the worst year for GDP since records began in 1970.

Moreover, this decline in GDP in 2020 is the first annual contraction since the recovery began after the financial crisis. Spanish GDP hadn't fallen since 2013, when it fell by 1.4%.