Economy
Spain's capitalist mixed economy is the twelfth largest worldwide and the fifth largest in the European Union, as well as the Eurozone's fourth largest.
The centre-right government of former prime minister José María Aznar 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,[76] a large underground economy,[77] and an education system which OECD reports place among the poorest for developed countries, together with the United States and UK.[78]
However, the property bubble that 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 reached 18.7% (37% for youths).[79][80]
Before the current crisis, the Spanish economy was credited for having avoided the virtual zero growth rate of some of its largest partners in the EU.[81] In fact, the country's economy 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.[82] The Spanish economy has been until recently regarded as one of the most dynamic within the EU, attracting significant amounts of foreign investment.[83]
The most recent economic growth benefited greatly from the global real estate boom, with construction representing an astonishing 16% of GDP and 12% of employment in its final year.[84]
According to calculations by the German newspaper Die Welt in 2007, Spain was on course to overtake Germany in per capita income by 2011.[85] But the collapse of the housing boom in 2008 brought this to an end. According to the IMF, the PPP GDP per capita of Spain had, by 2010, slipped to USD 29,830; this compared to Germany at 36,081, UK 35,059, France 33,910, Italy 29,480, Greece 28,496, and Portugal 23,262.[86]
Before the collapse of the real estate boom there had been a corresponding rise in the levels of personal debt as prospective home owners struggled to meet asking prices. The average level of household debt tripled in less than a decade. This placed 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.[87]
The 2008/2009 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, participated in the UK government's bail-out of part of the UK banking sector.[88]
A European Commission forecast predicted Spain would enter a recession by the end of 2008.[89] According to Spain’s Finance Minister, “Spain faces its deepest recession in half a century”.[90] Spain's government forecast the unemployment rate would rise to 16% in 2009. The ESADE business school predicted 20%.[91]
Tourism
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.[84][92] Today, theclimate of Spain, historical and cultural monuments and its geographic position together with its facilities make tourism one of Spain's main national industries and a large source of stable employment and development. The Spanish hotel star rating system has requirements much more demanding than other European countries, so at a given rating Spanish accommodations worth higher.[93]
Energy
Spain is one of the world's leading countries in the development and production of renewable energy. In 2010 Spain became the solar power world leader when it overtook the United States with a massive power station plant called La Florida, near Alvarado, Badajoz.[94][95] Spain is also Europe's main producer of wind energy. In 2010 its wind turbines generated 42,976 GWh, which accounted for 16.4% of all the energy produced in Spain.[96][97][98] On November 9, 2010, wind energy reached an instantaneous historic peak covering 53% of mainland electricity demand[99] and generating an amount of energy that is equivalent to that of 14 nuclear reactors.[100] Other renewable energies used in Spain are hydroelectric, biomass and marine (2 power plants under construction).[101]
Non-renewable energy sources used in Spain are nuclear (8 operative reactors), gas, coal, and oil.
Transport
The Spanish road system is mainly centralized, with 6 highways connecting Madrid to the Basque Country, Catalonia, Valencia, West Andalusia,Extremadura and Galicia. Additionally, there are highways along the Atlantic (Ferrol to Vigo), Cantabrian (Oviedo to San Sebastián) and Mediterranean (Girona to Cádiz) coasts.
Spain has the most extensive high-speed rail network in Europe, and the second most extensive in the world after China.[102][103][104] As of October 2010 Spain has a total of 3,500 km (2,174.80 mi) of high speed tracks linking Málaga, Seville, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Valladolid, with the trains reaching speeds up to 300 km/h (187 mph). On average, the Spanish high-speed train is the fastest one in the world followed by the Japanese bullet train and theFrench TGV.[105] Regarding punctuality, it is the second one in the world (98.54% on-time arrival) after the Japanese Shinkansen (99%). [106] Should the aims of the ambitious AVE program (Spanish high speed trains) be met, by 2020 Spain will have 7000 km (4300 mi) of high-speed trains linking almost all provincial cities to Madrid in less than 3 hours and Barcelona within 4 hours.
There are 47 public airports in Spain. The busiest one is the airport of Madrid (Barajas), with 50.8 million passengers in 2008, being the world's 11th busiest airport, as well as the European Union's fourth busiest. The airport of Barcelona (El Prat) is also important, with 30 million passengers in 2008. Other main airports are located in Gran Canaria, Málaga, Valencia, Seville, Mallorca, Alicante and Bilbao.
Spain aims to put 1 million electric cars on the road by 2014 as part of the government's plan to save energy and boost energy efficiency.[107] The Minister of Industry Miguel Sebastian said that "the electric vehicle is the future and the engine of an industrial revolution."[108]
Demographics
Geographical distribution of the Spanish population in 2008
In 2008 the population of Spain officially reached 46 million people, as recorded by the Padrón municipal.[109] Spain's population density, at 91/km² (235/sq mi), is lower than that of most Western European countries and its distribution across the country is very unequal. With the exception of the region surrounding the capital, Madrid, the most populated areas lie around the coast. The population of Spain more than doubled since 1900, when it stood at 18.6 million, principally due to the spectacular demographic boom in the 1960s and early 1970s.[110]
Native Spaniards make up 88% of the total population of Spain. After the birth rate plunged in the 1980s and Spain's population growth rate dropped, the population again trended upward, based initially on the return of many Spaniards who had emigrated to other European countries during the 1970s, and more recently, fuelled by large numbers of immigrants who make up 12% of the population. The immigrants originate mainly in Latin America (39%), North Africa (16%), Eastern Europe (15%), and Sub-Saharan Africa (4%).[111]In 2005, Spain instituted a three-month amnesty program through which certain hitherto undocumented aliens were granted legal residency.
In 2008, Spain granted citizenship to 84,170 persons, mostly to people from Ecuador, Colombia and Morocco.[112] A sizeable portion of foreign residents in Spain also comes from other Western and Central European countries. These are mostly British, French, German, Dutch, and Norwegian. They reside primarily on the Mediterranean costas and Balearic islands, where many are choosing to live their retirement or telework.
Substantial populations descended from Spanish colonists and immigrants exist in other parts of the world, most notably in Latin America. Beginning in the late 15th century, large numbers of Iberian colonists settled in what became Latin America and at present most white Latin Americans (who make up about one-third of Latin America's population) are of Spanish or Portuguese origin. In the 16th century perhaps 240,000 Spaniards emigrated, mostly to Peru and Mexico.[113] They were joined by 450,000 in the next century.[114] Between 1846 and 1932 it is estimated that nearly 5 million Spaniards emigrated to the Americas, especially to Argentina and Brazil.[115] Approximately two million Spaniards migrated to other Western European countries between 1960 to 1975. During the same period perhaps 300,000 went to Latin America.[116]
Urbanization
Map of the main metropolitan areas
The
Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its second article, recognises historic entities ("nationalities", a carefully chosen word in order to avoid the more politically charged "nations") and regions, within the context of the Spanish nation. For some people, Spain's identity consists more of an overlap of different regional identities than of a sole Spanish identity. Indeed, some of the regional identities may even conflict with the Spanish one.
[clarification needed] Distinct traditional regional identities within Spain include the
Basques,
Catalans,
Galicians and
Castilians, among others.
[118]It is this last feature of "shared identity" between the more local level or Autonomous Community and the Spanish level which makes the identity question in Spain complex and far from univocal.
Minority groups
Spain has a number of descendants of populations from former colonies (especially Equatorial Guinea) and immigrants from several Sub-Saharan andCaribbean countries have been recently settling in Spain. There are also sizeable numbers of Asian immigrants, most of whom are of Chinese, Indian, Filipino,Middle Eastern and South Asian origins; the population of Latin Americans is sizable as well and a fast growing segment. Other growing groups are Britons, 760,000 in 2006, Germans and other immigrants from the rest of Europe.[119]
The arrival of the Gitanos, a Romani people, began in the 16th century; estimates of the Spanish Gitano population fluctuate around 700,000.[120] TheMercheros (also Quinquis) are a minority group, formerly nomadic, that share a lot of the way of life of Gitanos. Their origin is unclear.
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