The Catalan economy continued growing more than 3% year-on-year in the second quarter of the year, according to figures published this Friday by Idescat, the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia. Compared with the first quarter, GDP grew 0.7%, one tenth of a point less than it had grown that quarter, 0.8%. The year-on-year growth of 3.1% was also one tenth of a point down on the first three months (3.2%).
Despite this slight deceleration, Catalonia's quarterly GDP figures are still a tenth of a point above Spanish growth in the second quarter (0.6%) and three tenths of a point above the EU (0.4%).
The gap between the Catalan economy and the Spanish and European has grown when comparing year-on-year growth rates recorded in the second quarter. Specifically, Catalan GDP grew 3.1%, four tenths of a point over the 2.7% of Spanish GDP and a whole point over the 2.1% seen by the EU as a whole.
Investment in industry grows
Looking at individual sectors, investment has restarted mainly in industry, growing 5.3% after 1.5% the first quarter. Construction, meanwhile, grew 4.1%, a slight decrease after its 4.6% in the first three months of the year.
In terms of the contribution from exports, they grew 0.6%, a tenth of a point less than the first quarter. This drop is explained primarily by a "significant" reduction in the growth of sales of goods and services (1.6% after 4.9%). Idescat notes that this fall in the influence of exports has to be considered in the international context where exports for the whole EU have stopped growing.
Imports stay strong, growing 2.8%, three tenths of a point less than the first quarter.
The second quarter of the year, before the diminishing tourist activity seen over the summer, saw consumption by foreigners in Catalonia growing 6.9%, ahead of the 5.5% it grew in the first quarter.
As for industry, Idescat says it maintains "notable activity", growing 4.0%, despite this being lower than its results in the first quarter of 4.9%.