The Catalan economy stops the fall of GDP and records a 0.0% growth during the second quarter of 2013

Barcelona (ACN).- The Catalan economy stopped the fall in GDP during the second quarter of 2013 recording a 0.0% growth, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Catalan Finance Ministry and Catalonia’s Statistics Institute (Idescat). In the past nine months the decrease of the GDP level has been gradually reduced. In the fourth quarter of 2012 Catalonia’s GDP was reduced by 0.7%, this figure for the first quarter of this year was 0.1%, meanwhile for the second quarter the rate has stabilised with a 0.0% growth. The improvement has been due to the industrial sector, particularly thanks to the exportation of goods which made up for the sustained falling of domestic demand. The industrial sector posted a 0.5% increase in gross value added compared to the end of March 2013. However, the annual figures continue to be negative. Compared to the same figures of last year, the Catalan economy decreased by 1.3%.

The construction sector has continued its loss of activity which began in 2008. Nonetheless, the decline of the sector has slowed this year with a growth rate of -5.1% on figures from June 2012. In the property sector there has also been a slowing in the decline in the sale of homes, which is in part caused by the reduction in the price of new properties of 40% since early 2008. However, the main cause of the reduction in the GDP shrinking rate has been due to the industry sector which, following six consecutive quarters of negative values, has increased its gross value added by 0.5% due to an increase in the exportation of goods.

The evolution of gross value added in the services sector continues to register negative values, with a level of -1.4% over the last 12 months. This has been due to the sharp fall in household consumption and public sector expenditure. In spite of this, market indictors in the sector (such as turnover) show that the decline has slowed. The influx of foreign tourists in Catalonia has made up for the weakness of domestic tourism. During the first six months of the year, the amount of foreign tourists visiting Catalonia increased by 5.7% and the expenditure made by these tourists was up by 10.3%. However, domestic tourism and tourism from the whole of Spain have both continued to decline. This has reduced the number of hotel stays during the first six months of the year by 10.6%.