Catalonia's GDP fell by 21% in second quarter on last year

Catalonia's GDP fell by 21.3% in the second quarter on last year, according to Catalonia's statistics institute Idescat.

The Covid-19 pandemic had a big impact in the country's economy, which dropped by 16.9% from April to June compared to January to March.

These figures are slightly worse than the estimations made by the same institution in late July, when the fall on last year was predicted at 20.1%.

The hiatus in the economy growth compared to the second quarter of 2019 was significantly bigger than that of the EU average (11.7%), but lower than the Spanish figure (22.1%).

If the GDP is compared to the three months prior, the figure is still gloomier than the European average, at 14.1%, but better than Spain, at 18.5%.

The elements contributing the most in the dramatic fall was the decrease of the internal demand (19.7%) in most of goods and the total exports, with a drop of 37.3% compared to April, May and June 2019 – imports also declined in the same period by 33.6%.

Beginning of recovery in June

Retail is one of the sectors that contributed the most to the shrink, as well as industry, with a growth of -23.1%. Vehicle manufacturing and metallurgy suffered the most – yet, according to Idescat, part of the retail was back in June, when industries like that of food, pharma and chemical products equaled the figures of 2019.