The regions of Lleida, Girona, and the Pyrenees lead economic growth in Catalonia.

BarcelonaThe regions of Girona, Ponent, and the Pyrenees led economic growth in Catalonia last year, according to the Regional Economic Yearbook published by BBVA this Monday. The study concludes that by 2024, most Catalan regions had already surpassed pre-pandemic activity levels, with the exception of Terres de l'Ebre.

By region, Segarra grew the most in 2024, with a 6.1% increase in gross added value (GAV), an indicator similar to gross domestic product (GDP) that measures a region's economic activity. It was followed by Noguera and Alt Urgell, with 5.7% and 5.5%, respectively.

At the other extreme, Moianès was the only region to close last year with a drop in activity, 1.1%. Terra Alta was the region with the second lowest growth, with a positive 0.8%.

In this sense, Camp de Tarragona and the Ponent regions exceeded pre-pandemic levels in terms of GVA, and now only Terres de l'Ebre has an activity level still below that of 2019. In the case of these regions, this is mainly due to the strong influence of the sector, followed by geopolitical turbulence due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the various conflicts in the Middle East, especially in Gaza.

The report's director, UAB economics professor Josep Oliver, highlighted during the presentation the "strength" of the Catalan economy in recent years, with growth clearly higher than that of the eurozone economies. However, the yearbook notes that personal services—such as commerce, tourism, and leisure activities—were the main driver of growth last year and accounted for more than 40% of the country's economic activity, a "much higher share than in comparable regions of Italy or Germany," such as Veneto or Bavaria.

This growth in services is due to the improvement in household disposable income and, therefore, to the growth in consumption, thanks to the strong performance of the labor market, which last year saw record employment and a drop in the unemployment rate, both in Catalonia and in Spain as a whole. This improvement in the labor market has largely been achieved through the incorporation of foreign labor, as demonstrated by the growth of the Catalan population in recent years, which has been driven almost exclusively by the arrival of immigrants from other countries.

However, he also highlighted the growth of the manufacturing industry, professional services (logistics, transportation, liberal professions), collective services (education, healthcare, and public administration), and the recovery of the primary sector. In fact, the good performance of the industry is, according to Oliver, "the best news" after "some years in which the manufacturing sector had struggled."

On the contrary, 2024 was "a year of slowdown for exports," the professor noted, although this was partly offset by the growth of tourism, which exceeded the spending and visitor figures of 2019, the year before the pandemic, albeit by a margin.

Incipient change of model

The significant share of services in GVA, especially personal services, makes Catalonia "basically a tertiary country whose manufacturing sector is growing slightly." This is the main difference with European regions such as Lombardy, Bavaria, Veneto, and Rhône-Alpes, which began the 21st century with similar levels of industrial share in Catalonia and have been able to maintain them, which has not been the case in the Principality.

However, Oliver sees signs of a change in the economic model in recent years, although he believes that at current rates it could take "decades" to be significant enough to substantially change the "country's productive structure." These changes include the fact that professional services are growing faster than personal services and that industry is once again increasing its proportion of total GVA. Also, the strong increase in investment, especially productive activity by companies, may demonstrate a shift in the model toward higher value-added economic activities in Catalonia.