Economy - overview Spain's mixed capitalist economy supports a GDP that on a per capita basis is three-fourths that of the four leading West European economies. Its center-right government has staked much on gaining admission to the first group of countries to implement the European single currency and, based on economic indicators, Madrid appears poised to be in EMU from the outset. The deficit-to-GDP ratio is 2.3%, the debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to be around 68%, and inflation is approximately 2%. Moreover, the AZNAR administration has continued to advocate liberalization, privatization, and deregulation of the economy, and has introduced some tax reforms to that end. Unemployment, nonetheless, remains the highest in the EU at 21%. The government, for political reasons, has made only limited progress in changing labor laws or reforming pension schemes, which are key to the sustainability of both Spain's internal economic advances and its competitiveness in a single currency area.

GDP purchasing power parity - $642.4 billion (1997 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 3.3% (1997 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $16,400 (1997 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 3.6%
industry: 33.6%
services: 62.8% (1995 est.)

Inflation rate - consumer price index 2.1% (1997 est.)

Labor force
total: 16.2 million
by occupation: services 64%, manufacturing, mining, and construction 28%, agriculture 8% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate 21% (1997 est.)

Budget
revenues: $113 billion
expenditures: $139 billion, including capital expenditures of $15 billion (1995)

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

Industrial production growth rate -0.8% (1996)

Electricity - capacity 39.583 million kW (1995)

Electricity - production 154.144 billion kWh (1995)

Electricity - consumption per capita 4,026 kWh (1995)

Agriculture - products grain, vegetables, olives, wine grapes, sugar beets, citrus; beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish catch of 867,000 metric tons in 1993

Exports
total value: $94.5 billion (f.o.b., 1995)
commodities: cars and trucks, semifinished manufactured goods, foodstuffs, machinery (1994)
partners: EU 72.1%, US 4.2%, other developed countries 7.9% (1996)

Imports
total value: $118.3 billion (c.i.f., 1995)
commodities: machinery, transport equipment, fuels, semifinished goods, foodstuffs, consumer goods, chemicals (1994)
partners: EU 65.6%, US 6.6%, other developed countries 11.5%, Middle East 6.2% (1996)

Debt - external $90 billion (1993 est.)

Economic aid
donor: ODA, $1.213 billion (1993)

Currency 1 peseta (Pta) = 100 centimos

Exchange rates pesetas (Ptas) per US$1 - 153.94 (January 1998), 146.41 (1997), 126.66 (1996), 124.69 (1995), 133.96 (1994), 127.26 (1993)

Fiscal year calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Spain on this page is re-published from the 1998 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Spain Economy 1998 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Spain Economy 1998 should be addressed to the CIA.