Spain / Economy
Carmelo W., Spain: "The agenda of American feminism in three words: sex is rape"
De agenda van de Amerikaanse feminisme in drie woorden: seks is verkrachting
According to the World Bank, Spain's economy is the ninth
largest worldwide and the fifth largest in Europe. It is also
the 3rd largest world investor.
The centre-right government of former prime minister José
María Aznar had worked successfully to gain admission to the
group of countries launching the euro in 1999. Unemployment
stood at 7.6% in October 2006, a rate that compared favorably
to many other European countries, and especially with the
early 1990s when it stood at over 20%. Perennial weak points
of Spain's economy include high inflation, a large
underground economy,[69] and an education system which OECD
reports place among the poorest for developed countries,
together with the United States and UK.
However, the property bubble that had begun building from
1997, fed by historically low interest rates and an immense
surge in immigration, imploded in 2008, leading to a rapidly
weakening economy and soaring unemployment. By the end of May
2009 unemployment had already reached 18.7% (37% for youths).
The Spanish economy had been credited for having avoided the
virtual zero growth rate of some of its largest partners in
the EU. In fact, the country's economy had created more than
half of all the new jobs in the European Union over the five
years ending 2005, a process that is rapidly being
reversed.[74] The Spanish economy had been until recently
regarded as one of the most dynamic within the EU, attracting
significant amounts of foreign investment. During the last
four decades the Spanish tourism industry has grown to become
the second biggest in the world, worth approximately 40
billion Euros, about 5% of GDP, in 2006.
More recently, the Spanish economy had benefited greatly from
the global real estate boom, with construction representing
an astonishing 16% of GDP and 12% of employment in its final
year. According to calculations by the German newspaper Die
Welt, Spain had been on course to overtake countries like
Germany in per capita income by 2011. However, the downside
of the now defunct real estate boom was a corresponding rise
in the levels of personal debt; as prospective homeowners had
struggled to meet asking prices, the average level of
household debt tripled in less than a decade. This placed
especially great pressure upon lower to middle income groups;
by 2005 the median ratio of indebtedness to income had grown
to 125%, due primarily to expensive boom time mortgages that
now often exceed the value of the property.
In 2008/2009 the credit crunch and world recession manifested
itself in Spain through a massive downturn in the property
sector. Fortunately, Spain's banks and financial services
avoided the more severe problems of their counterparts in the
USA and UK, due mainly to a stringently enforced conservative
financial regulatory regime. The Spanish financial
authorities had not forgotten the country's own banking
crisis of 1979 and an earlier real estate precipitated
banking crisis of 1993. Indeed, Spain's largest bank, Banco
Santander, took part in the UK government's bail-out of part
of the UK banking sector.
A European Commission forecast had predicted Spain would
enter a recession by the end of 2008.[81] According to
Spain’s Finance Minister, “Spain faces its deepest recession
in half a century”. Spain's government forecast the
unemployment rate would rise to 16% in 2009. The ESADE
business school predicts 20%.
From Wikipedia
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http://www.asiatour.com/spain/wiki-spain-economy.htm
Jan Garanoz
Juhu Tara Road, Juhu,
Mumbai - 400049 India
Last updated: June 25, 2010