Catalonia’s GDP grows 0.4% between January and March, accumulating 4 positive quarters

Barcelona (ACN).- The Catalan economy grew by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2014, which means that GDP has been increasing for the last 4 consecutive quarters, leaving recession far behind, according to an early estimate published on Monday by Catalonia’s Statistics Institute (Idescat) and the Catalan Ministry of the Economy and Knowledge. Furthermore, between March 2013 and March 2014, Catalonia’s economy grew by 0.8%. In the second quarter of 2013 it registered a quarterly growth of 0.1%; in the third it also posted a 0.1% quarterly growth; between October and December, it increased by 0.2%; and now, between January and March, it grew by 0.4%. The services sector has been the main engine behind this positive trend; in the last 12 months it grew by 1.4%. The early estimate offers figures for the global GDP and the gross added value of the agrarian, industrial, construction and service sectors. In the light of the estimates published in recent years, these early calculations tend to be quite similar to the definitive figures.

The services sector has been the main force behind the GDP growth registered not only in the last quarter but also in the last 12 months. At the end of March 2014, it had registered an annual growth of 1.4%. The positive annual results posted by this sector started in the last quarter of 2013, when it registered a 0.8% annual growth, thanks to internal demand. The economic situation indicators from the first quarter of 2014 suggest that internal demand maintains this trajectory, particularly regarding private consumption and investment in capital goods. Tourist demand has continued to act as one of the main engines of the sector, thanks to record numbers of foreign visitors. The recovery of employment levels in the service sector is one of the main indicators of its positive evolution as well as that of the whole economy, according to the press release from the Catalan Ministry for the Economy and Knowledge.

In addition, the positive trend of the industrial sector registered since the end of 2012 continues. The gross added value of the sector has grown by 1.5% during the first quarter of 2014 and also compared to the same period of 2013. Industrial production has in fact improved in most of the sub-sectors. Activity in the Catalan industrial sector is benefitting from the good export results posted and from the improvement of internal demand.

Furthermore, activity in the construction sector is no longer falling so sharply, having slowed down the sector’s contraction. According to the estimate published on Monday, the construction sector decreased by 6% in Catalonia between March 2013 and March 2014. Construction continues to suffer from the drop in demand for residential housing as well as from the fall in public investment. In the past year, the sector posted annual drops of 6.9%, 6.5%, 6.5% and 6.9% in the four quarters of 2013.

Finally, agriculture, livestock breeding and fishing is the only other sector that, along with the industrial one, has not registered negative figures in the past 12 months. In fact, it grew by 5.8% between March 2013 and March 2014. However, its small share of the Catalan GDP means its positive results have a limited impact on the entire economy.