Quarterly National Accounts of Spain: main aggregates about Fourth quarter of 2021: Results in the context of the COVID-19 crisis

Quarterly National Accounts of Spain: main aggregates. Fourth quarter of 2021. Results in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. Figures released by the National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE).

Main figures. Spanish economy

• The Spanish GDP registered a variation of 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the previous quarter. This rate is four points lower than that registered in the third quarter and two tenths higher than the preliminary figure for last January 28th.

• Year-on-year GDP variation stood at 5.5%, compared with 3.5% in the previous quarter. This rate is three tenths higher than the preliminary rate1

• Throughout 2021, the GDP at current prices was 1,205,063 million euros, 7.4% higher than in 2020. In terms of volume, the GDP recorded a variation of 5.1%.

• The contribution of the domestic demand to the year-on-year GDP growth was 3.8 percentage points, 1.4 points higher than that of the third quarter. Meanwhile, external demand registered a contribution of 1.8 points, eight tenths higher than in the previous quarter.

• The implicit GDP deflator increased by 4.3% compared to the same quarter in 2020, which is 2.4 points higher than in the previous quarter.

• Employment in the economy, in terms of hours worked, registered a quarter-on-quarter variation of -0.1%. This rate is less than that of full-time equivalent jobs (0.7%) due to the reduction observed in average full-time hours (─0.8%).

• In year-on-year terms, hours worked increased by 2.7%, a rate six tenths lower than that of the third quarter of 2021, and full-time equivalent positions fell by 5.8%, five tenths less than in the third quarter, representing an increase of 1,022 thousand full-time equivalent jobs in one year.

• The year-on-year variation of the unit labour cost stood at 0.3% this quarter.

• Gross national income and gross national disposable income increased by 4.6% and 5.1% respectively compared to the previous quarter.

• In relation to the fourth quarter of 2020, national income increased by 9.6% and national disposable income by 10.7%.