In quarterly terms, the Spanish economy grew by 0.5%, one tenth more than in the internal quarter.
Household consumption continued its contraction and fell by 1.3% in the first quarter, after having fallen by 1.7% in the previous one. In this way, family spending has already accumulated two quarters in negative.
Public spending also fell between January and March by 1.6%, after two quarters of growth.
On the other hand, investment (gross capital formation) boosted the Spanish economy by growing by 1.9%, together with exports, which advanced by 5.8%.
Domestic demand (consumption and investment) subtracted 0.8 percentage points from quarterly growth, while foreign demand (exports and imports) contributed positively with 1.3 points.
On the supply side, the drop in the services sector -one of the main bulwarks of the Spanish economy-, which fell by 0.1% compared to the previous quarter, is striking.
The rest of the activities grew with agriculture leading the way (4.8%), followed by construction (2.5%) and industry (0.6%).
Employment in the economy, measured in hours worked, increased 0.4% between January and March, while full-time equivalent jobs only grew 0.1%, due to the lower increase in average full-time days complete.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has highlighted that this acceleration in GDP has occurred “in an international context of great uncertainty”, marked by the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which shows, in his opinion, the “great solidity and resilience” of the Spanish economy.
Likewise, the Department headed by Nadia Calviño has stressed that Spain “has practically reached the level of GDP prior to the pandemic”, the only indicator pending recovery.
In year-on-year terms, the GDP stepped on the accelerator and increased its growth by nine tenths, from 2.9% to 3.8%, according to advance data from the National Accounts published today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Domestic demand contributed 1.3 points to year-on-year GDP growth in the first quarter, a figure three tenths higher than that of the previous quarter, while external demand contributed 2.5 points, six tenths more.
The INE advance data is prepared with the information available up to February in most cases, although it has also included estimates of indicators for the month of March based on administrative data and other additional sources.
