Catalan economy keeps positive trend and posts 3.5% annual growth

The Catalan economy has kept its pace of growth during the second quarter of 2016, posting a 0.8% increase in GDP, the same figure registered in the previous quarter. This trend shows that the Catalan economy hasn’t run out of steam in the last months, different to what has happened on the international scale, where forecasts pointed to a global deceleration. 

Thus, neither ‘Brexit’ nor the lack of a government in Spain seem to have affected the Catalan economic recovery, which had grown by 3.5% by the end of the second quarter compared to the same period last year. Moreover, the industrial sector has grown by 3.5%, the best figure registered in the last six years and even higher than the Eurozone average. Regarding the construction sector, it has been growing for the past six quarters, posting a 3.7% increase in annual terms.

The recovery of domestic demand and the continuing good performance of the export and tourism sectors are the main engines behind the positive figures since the second quarter of 2015. Indeed, tourism in the first semester of 2016 increased by 4.1% in comparison to the same period last year and the number of overnight stays grew by 8.4%. 

Read more on CNA.