Catalonia's economy grew 2.6% in 2018

Catalonia's economy grew by 2.6% in 2018, according to the Catalan government in a report published on Monday. The GDP growth continued for a fifth year in a row, but the pace was slightly below previous years.

Between 2015 and 2017 the growth was above 3%.

The reasons given by the tax ministry include the deceleration of trade at a global scale, especially in the industrial sector, as well as the uncertainty of the global context.

Catalonia's growth in 2018 was higher than the Spanish average (2.5%) and the EU (1.8%.)

The same sources stated that the country's unemployment rate at the end of 2018 was 11.5%, the lowest in 10 years.

Also on Monday figures from the Spanish government showed that the unemployment grew by 5,469 people in January (1.39%.) to reach 398,376 people. 

Two ways of calculating unemployment

The figures differ from those published last week in the latest Labor Force Survey (EPA in Spanish), which identified 451,000 unemployed people in Catalonia at the end of 2018.

The variation in the figures can be attributed to the different methods for gathering data. The figures made public on Monday are based on the number of jobseekers registered with the Employment Service, while the EPA figures are taken from surveying a broad sample of 65,000 households, or some 200,000 individuals, all over Spain.