Catalan economy sees steady growth in first quarter of 2023

The Catalan economy saw steady growth in the first quarter of 2023. 

Compared to the previous quarter, Catalonia's GDP grew by 1.2%, while the year-on-year growth stood at 3%. 

These data are according to preliminary figures published by Catalan Statistics Institute (Idescat) on Friday. 

Catalonia's quarter-on-quarter growth is higher than both Spain's average (0.5%) and almost a full percentage point higher than the average of the EU-27 (0.3%).

The Catalan GDP has climbed by 3% over the past year thanks to the good performance of the industrial sector, which has broken the negative trend of 2022. However, this is lower than the yearly growth of the Spanish economy (3.8%) but again sits above the European average (1.3%).

A technical recession has been avoided, a situation determined when the GDP sees two consecutive quarters of decline, a scenario that some economic bodies had proposed for the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.

Idescat also highlighted the positive trend seen in the pharmaceutical industry, the manufacturing of machinery, beverages, and the motor vehicle sector.

On the other hand, food and chemical production have seen declines.