The INE lowers the GDP growth to 2.6% in the second quarter

Spain's economy grew by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2023, driven by increased household consumption, according to the National Statistics Institute. This marks a tenth of a percentage point higher than the 0.6% growth in the first quarter of the year. The internal demand was the main booster for the economy's positive intertrimestral rates for the 24th time in a row.

Household spending accelerated to an intertrimestral rate of 1.2%, marking a 9th place improvement from the first quarter. Investment also showed dynamism, with gross fixed capital formation growing by 1.4% intertrimestral (4th place higher than the first quarter). Residential and construction investments grew by 0.5%, four places higher than the previous quarter, while intellectual property products increased by 3%, twice as much as the first quarter.

Public spending maintained its quarterly growth at 0.5%. External demand contributed to the economy's growth through a 1% increase in exports from April to June, marking a tenth of a percentage point higher than the first quarter. However, imports accelerated their growth rate by 2.5 points, reaching 2.6%. Interannually, Spain's GDP grew by 2.6% in the second quarter, one tenth less than initially forecast.

Despite this, the figure matches the growth of the first quarter as Statistics Spain has reduced the interannual growth of the first three months of the year by a tenth to 2.6%. With this interannual rebound, the Spanish economy has now recorded 21 quarters of interannual growth. In this case, domestic demand contributed 3.5 percentage points to the Spanish economy's interannual growth in the second quarter, while external demand had a negative contribution of nine tenths.