The European Commission improves the GDP growth forecasts for Spain by four tenths upwards in 2024 to 2.1% and reduces its public deficit estimate by two tenths to 3% of GDP.
The new macro forecasts from Brussels are above the latest ones made by the Government (2%). By 2025, however, its GDP growth forecast worsens by one tenth to 1.9%, as well as inflation, which now stands at 2.3%, two tenths above what was previously projected.
According to the report from the Community Executive, Spain will once again be the economy that grows the most in 2024 among the large ones in the eurozone driven above all by internal demand and the “resilience” of the labor market.
The Community Executive expects inflation to drop this year one tenth more than estimated in February, up to 3.1%, and will remain in this range this year, to be reduced by 2% next year.
The public debt will be reduced, according to the new forecasts, one point more than previously projected, up to 105.5% of GDP at the end of fiscal year 2014 and will continue to drop to 104.8% next year, in line with the Executive's estimates.
For the euro zone as a whole, the European Commission maintains the forecast at 0.8% in 2024, supported by the good start of the year, but also without giving up the geopolitical risks that “have increased in recent months,” including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
The Community Executive calculates in its new macroeconomic forecasts that the GDP of the euro zone will increase 1.4% in 2025, one tenth less than what it calculated in February, while in the European Union as a whole, GDP will expand 1% this year and 1.6% next year.
Regarding inflation, Brussels estimates that the eurozone will close this year at 2.5% and next year at 2.1%, after the 5.4% rate in 2023, while in the EU it will fall from 6.4% last year to 2.7% in 2024 and 2.2% in 2025.
The Government has celebrated that the European Commission has revised upwards its forecast above the Executive's forecasts (2%), which certifies that Spain “will lead the economic growth of the euro zone until 2025.”
“In a context of international uncertainty and downward revision of the GDP growth forecasts of some of our main trading partners, “The growth of the Spanish economy will be almost three times higher than the Euro Zone average,” the Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business highlights in a statement.
For the department in charge of Carlos Body, these data confirm the “effectiveness” of the Government's economic policy which is allowing us to combine one of the greatest growths in Europe”.
