The Catalan economy grows by 3% during the second quarter

BarcelonaConstruction and services boosted the Catalan economy during the second quarter. Specifically, according to data from the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia (Idescat) published this Friday, the gross domestic product (GDP, the indicator that measures the size of an economy) grew by 3% in Catalonia compared to the same period a year ago. The figure places the Catalan economy above the increase experienced in the rest of the State. The numbers are remarkable in a complicated context marked by the effects derived from the war in Iran and, above all, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

By sectors, between April and June, services – which represent almost three-quarters of the country's economic activity – grew above most of the economy, by 3.7% year-on-year, driven by hospitality and restaurants, programming and consultancy activities, and wholesale trade. Construction grew to the same extent, maintaining the good trend of activity in 2025.

In contrast, industry advanced below the Catalan economy, by 1.5% compared to the second quarter of last year, and the same happened with agriculture, which remained practically stable (0.3%). However, the 1.5% growth in industry is half a percentage point higher than the increase recorded in the previous quarter, a fact that can be attributed to a certain normalization of geopolitical tensions derived from the attack by the United States and Israel at the beginning of the year.

Compared to the first quarter of the year, the Catalan economy grew by 0.7%, according to Idescat data. This places the pace of the Catalan economy in parallel with the Spanish economy, which also grew by 0.7% between April and June compared to the first months of the year. Both the Catalan and the State's GDP, however, were above the European Union average, where activity grew by 0.5%.

Above the Spanish average

With the figures from the second quarter, Catalonia is once again registering a growth rate higher than the Spanish economy as a whole and much higher than the EU average. In Spain, GDP increased by 2.7% annually between April and June, three tenths less than in Catalonia, as has happened in most quarters in the last three years.

Catalan growth – like Spanish growth – far exceeds that of the European Union, which in the second quarter was 1.2% annually, and that of the twenty countries sharing the euro, where the average was 1%. Of the 27 EU member states, about fifteen have already published their first growth figures for the past quarter, and only Lithuania, with 3.8% annually, exceeds Catalonia's growth rate, according to data published by Eurostat, the community's statistical agency.

Despite this, it should be noted that, so far, the bulk of growth in both Spain and Catalonia has focused on the creation of new jobs, which has brought unemployment to its lowest levels since 2008 and a record number of Social Security affiliations. This growth model has been criticized by institutions such as the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona or employers' associations, as well as academics, who believe that a shift is needed in the Catalan economy to focus growth on high value-added sectors and, therefore, on higher salaries.

It should be noted, in this regard, that business investment has been one of the engines of growth in recent quarters, with increases above the GDP average, a fact that experts consider indispensable for the improvement of the Catalan productive model, but which is not yet foreseen in this first estimate: the data published this Friday by Idescat are an advance and Idescat will confirm them on September 14.