Spain Economy 2001

Economy - overview: Spain's mixed capitalist economy supports a GDP that on a per capita basis is 80% that of the four leading West European economies. Its center-right government successfully worked to gain admission to the first group of countries launching the European single currency on 1 January 1999. The AZNAR administration has continued to advocate liberalization, privatization, and deregulation of the economy and has introduced some tax reforms to that end. Unemployment has been steadily falling under the AZNAR administration but remains the highest in the EU at 14%. The government intends to make further progress in changing labor laws and reforming pension schemes, which are key to the sustainability of both Spain's internal economic advances and its competitiveness in a single currency area. Adjusting to the monetary and other economic policies of an integrated Europe - and further reducing unemployment - will pose challenges to Spain in the next few years.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $720.8 billion (2000 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 4% (2000 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $18,000 (2000 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 4%
industry: 31%
services: 65% (1999)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.8%
highest 10%: 25.2% (1990)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 3.4% (2000 est.)

Labor force: 17 million (2000)

Labor force - by occupation: services 64%, manufacturing, mining, and construction 28%, agriculture 8% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate: 14% (2000 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $105 billion
expenditures: $109 billion, including capital expenditures of $12.8 billion (2000 est.)

Industries: textiles and apparel (including footwear), food and beverages, metals and metal manufactures, chemicals, shipbuilding, automobiles, machine tools, tourism

Industrial production growth rate: 4.5% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production: 197.694 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 57.71%
hydro: 12.1%
nuclear: 28.28%
other: 1.91% (1999)

Electricity - consumption: 189.57 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - exports: 6.23 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - imports: 11.945 billion kWh (1999)

Agriculture - products: grain, vegetables, olives, wine grapes, sugar beets, citrus; beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish

Exports: $120.5 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)

Exports - commodities: machinery, motor vehicles; foodstuffs, other consumer goods

Exports - partners: EU 71% (France 20%, Germany 12%, Italy 9%, Portugal 9%, UK 8%), Latin America 6%, US 5% (2000)

Imports: $153.9 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)

Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, fuels, chemicals, semifinished goods; foodstuffs, consumer goods (1997)

Imports - partners: EU 68% (France 18%, Germany 16%, Italy 9%, UK 7%, Benelux 8%), US 8%, OPEC 5%, Latin America 4%, Japan 3% (1999)

Debt - external: $90 billion (1993 est.)

Economic aid - donor: ODA, $1.3 billion (1995)

Currency: Spanish peseta (ESP); euro (EUR)
note: on 1 January 1999, the EU introduced the euro as a common currency that is now being used by financial institutions in Spain at a fixed rate of 166.386 Spanish pesetas per euro and will replace the local currency for all transactions in 2002

Currency code: ESP; EUR

Exchange rates: euros per US dollar - 1.0659 (January 2001), 1.0854 (2000), 0.9386 (1999); pesetas per US dollar - 149.40 (1998), 146.41 (1997), 126.66 (1996)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Spain on this page is re-published from the 2001 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Spain Economy 2001 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Spain Economy 2001 should be addressed to the CIA.