The INE has published GDP data by autonomous community, which shows that Catalonia grew by 3.6% in 2024, a rate slightly higher than the Spanish average and much more pronounced than that of the eurozone. The size of the Catalan economy exceeded €300 billion, the second largest in the state, behind only the Community of Madrid. However, if we look at the GDP per capita data, which is €37,426, then Catalonia falls to fourth place, behind Madrid, the Basque Country, and Navarre.
Except for Madrid, which enjoys advantages derived from the capital effect and applies a tax dumping policy that leads to a high concentration of resources, we see that the Basque Country and Navarre, with more industrialized economies and their own treasury and fiscal policies, are able to better distribute prosperity among their constituents. Therefore, these high growth figures should not make us lose perspective, because at the end of the day, the Basques and Navarrese are growing at a slower pace, but they are beating us in the most important indicator, which is GDP per capita.
And perhaps this is what explains why, while Catalonia is growing like nowhere else in Europe, this widespread malaise that runs throughout society is very visible. Why, in terms of purchasing power, are these figures useful to someone who cannot afford decent housing with stagnant salaries, while real estate prices continue to rise without limit? It is therefore necessary to move from macroeconomics to microeconomics. We need to better distribute all this wealth being created, which is not having the desired impact on citizens' pockets.
This must be compatible with the justified criticism of the unfair competition that Madrid practices with respect to the rest of the Spanish state. Looking at the historical data, we see that Madrid's economy represented 17.5% of the state's total in 2000 and has now climbed to 19.8%. Over the same period, Catalonia's share has remained stable: it was 18.9% in 2000 and will be 18.9% in 2024. However, some economies have lost weight: Castile and León, which has several provinces bordering Madrid, has fallen by 0.8 percentage points; the Basque Country, half a percentage point; and the Valencian Community, 0.4 percentage points.
Catalonia, therefore, is resisting the Madrid effect in terms of its share within the state as a whole, but is losing ground in GDP per capita. The €37,426 per inhabitant in Catalonia is a far cry from the €44,755 earned by Madrid residents, a figure almost double that of Andalusia or Extremadura, demonstrating that inequality within the state is worsening every year.
In any case, Catalonia must address its own problems and confront them. The drive of sectors like tourism cannot hide the alarming loss of competitiveness compared to Europe—which in turn is losing out on the rest of the world—nor the need to strengthen the industrial sector. Certainly, neither Madrid's tax dumping nor Trump's tariffs will help achieve this goal, but the world is as it is, not as we would like it to be.
