Two years after the emergence of Covid in Spain, the war in Ukraine, which caused inflation to skyrocket and interest rates to rise, and the energy crisis that ravaged all countries of the European Union. competitiveness Percentage of regions reached 2019 levels. Following a strong recovery in GDP between 2021 and 2022, the structural competitiveness of the 17 autonomous communities increased by 4.9% in 2022, in line with the general evolution of the economy, as extracted from the VII Report on Regional Competitiveness in Spain. General Council of Economists of Spain. Although they do not all have the same behavior. Extremadura, Andalusia and the Canary Islands are in last placeThe Community of Madrid, the Basque Country, the Foral Community of Navarra and Catalonia are at the top of the list with the best results in the Regional Competitiveness Index (ICREG). La Rioja and Galicia gain a position against Aragon and Cantabria respectively.
“There is a merger of two major blocs,” said José Carlos Sánchez de la Vega, technical director of the report, due to the “extreme polarization of autonomous communities due to their characteristics.” On the one hand, the four main regions are brought together as the most developed regions. Madrid survives thanks to the strength and leadership of this communityThis is largely due to their leading real GDP growth of 7.2% in 2022, strong per capita income and their commitment to innovation in an environment that supports business start-ups. Last year, the Basque Country took second place after Navarra, thanks to its strong dynamism. There is little change below the first four zones. “It is observed that these levels are gradually improving, but the numbers are not high enough for a distribution,” adds Sánchez de la Vega.
Variants produced last year showed: Andalusia, together with the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, are the regions with the highest growth in ICREG.. Galicia and Extremadura complete the most dynamic group. The key factors that increased competitiveness levels were the labor market, basic infrastructure, innovation and the economic environment, while other factors such as human capital remained almost the same as the previous year. Although La Rioja is one of the least dynamic regions in 2021, this edition makes clear that the Principality of Asturias is the only autonomous community that does not show significant changes in its competitiveness.
Competitive region profile
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According to the economists who prepared the report, greater or lesser business success is determined by many factors. On the one hand, it comes from the size of the companies. Spanish business texture It is characterized by its small size (95.7% are micro SMEs and have fewer than 9 employees). This is a feature shared with other EU countries, although Spain’s situation is slightly above the European average. “Large companies are less vulnerable to situations similar to those experienced in 2020, are more prone to change, better adapt to innovations and have greater advantages when it comes to attracting financing,” Sánchez de la Vega explained. He adds that only in this way will the efficiency of companies increase and the competitiveness of the regions where the company is located will increase.
Even so, Spain’s GDP per capita has drifted away from the community average. HE Average annual growth in Spain’s GDP per capita was 1.3 percentage points lower than in the EU-27. This brake on the convergence process started in 1995 and was also reflected in the situation of the autonomous communities. In 2007, GDP per capita in seven regions was higher than the European average, and only one region was below 75%; In 2021, however, the picture was reversed: only three autonomous communities exceeded the average and six regions were below 75%.