Abstract:A booming tourism sector, foreign investment and immigration are among the main pillars supporting economic growth in Spain.
Spain's booming economy is outpacing its European neighbors as tourism, foreign investment and immigration helps fuel growth.
The southern European country is still leading growth in the euro zone with annual gross domestic product forecasted to rise 2.5% this year, while the economies of France, Germany and Italy are respectively forecast to expand 0.6%, 0% and 0.7%.
Spain's GDP surpassed expectations in the second quarter, growing 0.7%, above a Reuters forecast of 0.6%. The growth was also higher than the previous three months, which levelled at 0.6%, data from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) showed.
“For the second year in a row, we will be the advanced economy number one in terms of GDP growth,” Spain's Finance Minister Carlos Cuerpo told CNBC in April.
“Spain is a great outlier now in terms of growth. It's also a great place to invest,” he added.
The success of Spain's economy relies on high consumption and investment, as well as tourism, Next Generation European funds, and immigration.
“It's not just tourism, it's also non-tourism services. We're exporting more in terms of services to firms like IT, accountability services, financial services, than we're exporting in terms of tourism — 100 billion euros [$116.8 billion] with respect to 94.95 billion [euros in tourism]. So that's an element of modernization of the Spanish economy,” said Cuerpo.