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1
- Political
Status
Spain has a constitutional monarchy with two
legislative assemblies, the Cortes and the
Senate.
The King is Juan Carlos de Borbon y Borbon, who has
been ruling since 22nd November 1975.
The Cortes has 350
members elected for a 4 year term of office by
direct general election.
There are 257
members in the Senate, 208 of whom are elected for
4 years, and 49 who are designated for a four year
term of office by the autonomous
communities.
Spain is composed
of 17 autonomous communities :
Andalousia, Aragon, Asturies, the Balearic islands,
the Canary Islands, Cantabrie, Castille-la-Mancha,
Castille-Leon, Catalonia, the Valencian community,
Estremadura, Galice, Madrid, Murcie, Navarre, the
Basque Country and the Rioja.
There are 50
provinces and 9,255 municipalities in the country.
The Popular Party
is in power at the moment, led by José Maria
Aznar, who took over as Prime Minister on the 4th
May 1996 after 14 years of government by Felipe
Gonzalez, a Moderate Socialist.
2
- Geographical
Situation
Spain is
divided from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees and
separated from the African continent by the Straits
of Gibraltar.
It has the particularity of owning domains in
France (Llivia) and in North Africa (Ceuta and
Melilla) and inversely has an English domain on its
soil (the Rock of Gibraltar).
The archipelego of the Balearic Islands is a group
of islands in the western Mediterranean which make
up a province. They are separated from Spain by the
Balearic channel.
The Canaries are a group of islands in the Atlantic
Ocean at about 100 kms off the west coast of
Africa. The 7 larger islands and 6 smaller ones
make up two provinces.
The total surface area of Spain is 504,782 square
kilometers, which equals 0.9 times the size of
France. The Canaries and the Balearic Islands are
32 sq. kms.
3
- Economy
Over
several years now the Spanish economy has been
rapidly growing, encouraged by the dynamism of
investment and internal consumption.
Economic growth in the year 2000 reached 4%,
whereas 3.7% was forecast.
This was due to the high level of exports (+15% in
March) and the constant internal demand.
GDP per capita : 14,623 US $.
A GDP of $576.8 billion is registered for a
population of 39 million.
The inflation rate is 2.3 % (2000).
Unemployment stands at 14% and is one of the
highest in Europe, but the vigorous growth and the
changes in the job market are lowering it.
The country has created nearly 700,000 jobs over
the last two years, that is half the number of jobs
created in the whole of Europe over the same
period.
But job mobility is limited and jobs are often
precarious : one third of work contracts are
temporary and for people under 30 this figure goes
up to two thirds.
France is the biggest commercial supplier and the
second biggest investor after the United States.
French imports represented 154 billion French
Francs in 1998.
Madrid is the Spanish capital and has a population
of 3.2 million. 13.2% of the population work there
and earn 16.22% of the Spanish GDP, i.e. 64,672
billion pesetas (=2,509 billion French Francs).
Catalonia (which includes Barcelona, Gerona, Lerida
and Tarragone) records 19.5% of the GNP, it is the
biggest earner of the 17 autonomous regions. With
15.5% of the population, it produces a quarter of
the exports. 29% of foreign investors are
established there.
The main economic partners of Spain are the United
States, Japan, Germany, France, the UK and
Italy.
The
main economic indicators
|
(in
percentage)
|
1997
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
|
economic
growth
|
3.8
|
4.0
|
3.7
|
3.7
|
|
consumption
(variation)
|
2.9
|
4.1
|
4.3
|
3.9
|
|
investment
(variation)
|
5.0
|
9.2
|
8.8
|
8.6
|
|
inflation
|
2.5
|
2.0
|
2.3
|
2.4
|
|
unemployment
|
20.8
|
18.8
|
15.8
|
14.0
|
|
short term
interest rate
|
5.4
|
4.2
|
2.9
|
3.3
|
|
public
balance/GDP
|
-3.1
|
-2.3
|
-1.4
|
-1.1
|
|
public
debt/GDP
|
70.9
|
70.3
|
70.4
|
70.6
|
|
exports
(variation)
|
15.1
|
7.1
|
6.7
|
8.0
|
|
Imports
(variation)
|
12.8
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11.1
|
11.5
|
11.4
|
|
trade
balance (billions $)
|
-13.2
|
-18.7
|
-25.8
|
-34.8
|
|
recettes
touristiques (milliards $)
|
26.651
|
29.737
|
-
|
-
|
|
investissement
étrangers (milliards $)
|
6.384
|
11.905
|
9.320
|
-
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(source
OECD)
The deficit and the
public debt are decreasing. The entry into the Euro
Monetary Union means that the service on the debt
has gone down with the lowering of the interest
rates. Spain is by far the leading beneficiary of
the European Union, receiving the double of what it
puts into the communal fund.
There are large
economic disparities between the different
autonomous communities. Decentralization has not
been completed, particularly where taxation is
concerned.
The government has
reduced its spending and the public deficit should
drop this year to 0.4% of the GDP (0.8% was
foreseen).
4
- Agriculture
Spanish
agriculture is not very productive. It employs 8.3%
of the working population but only represents 3.3%
of the GDP. The government has undertaken major
restructuring to adapt to the new needs of the
internal and external markets, for the moment we
can only see the first effects. Financial
investment has been considerable, backed up with an
effort at competivity and a more aggressive
commercial approach.
Spanish agriculture
doesn't benefit from good natural conditions ,
suffering from yearly drought and poor soil.
Management of water remains a problem because of
its immoderate use and its unequal distribution
throughout the regions.
Spain is spending a lot of money on improving its
water network and protecting its wells and its
water tables, it is investing heavily in
purification and treatment centres to get up to the
European standards.
41% of the total
land in the country is farmed
The main products
are barley (7.44 million tons), wheat (4.6 million
tons) and grapes (it is the 3rd wine producing
country in the world), rice, vegetables, cotton,
tobacco, sugar beat, maize (3.525 million tons) and
fruit (oranges = 2.707 million tons).
Spain is the 4th
biggest exporter of oranges and the leading world
producer of olive oil.
Livestock is made
up of 49 million head, 23.7 million sheep and 21.6
million pigs. (1999)
Fishing is one of
the most important economic sectors in Spain. 1.34
million tons were fished in 1997.
But since November 1999, Spanish fishermen have
been forbidden to fish in Moroccan waters and this
has led to the redundancy of 4,300 fishermen and
20,000 associated jobs (fish halls, ice factories,
ship builders etc).
5
- Industry
35% of the
labour force are employed in the industrial sector
which represents about 35% of the GNP. Industry can
be broken down into the following sectors :
electrical energy, iron and steel industries,
textiles, shoes, toys, ship building (in the
Alicante region), fish canning, car building,
special steels, computer materials, aircraft frames
and chemicals.
In 1999 all these branches of industry grew by 3.8%
(even more in the car and textile sectors) and
employment rose by 3.1%.
Mechanics and
transport material are the leading sectors,
followed by foodstuffs and chemicals.
Spain is the third
biggest car manufacturer in Europe and the 5th in
the world. In 1998 the sector represented 5.5% of
the GDP, employed about 650,000 people and exported
nearly 80% of its production (25% of the total
Spanish exports). 1999 was a record year for the
registration of private cars.
The sectors of
energy, steel, telecommunications, transport and
banks have all been or are being
restructured.
The building sector
is booming. Strong demand from both companies and
households are encouraging its growth. Also, after
having stopped for several years, the government
has started infrastructural works again. Employment
in this sector progressed by 11% in
1999.
Mining is very old
fashioned. Coal mines continue to produce thanks to
government subsidies which come from a 5% tax on
electricity. The coal is of such a bad quality that
no one wants it.
Spain is behind in
modernizing its productive material due to
insufficient research and up to date technology.
This results in huge importation of equipment which
leads to a structural deficit in the balance of
trade.
Hydroelectricity
and nuclear electricity is plentiful.
The sales of
pharmaceutical products increased by 11% in 1998,
which is the biggest increase among all the
European countries.
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