spain

spain

Economy of Spain

The economic history of Spain started around the year 2000 before Christ, when the Metal Age started. In this period started the first commercial activities with the Mediterranean people (Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians). The arribal of the Romans around the year 218 before Christ transformed the economy of Hispania, developing agriculture and trade.
Spain was united politically in the late fifteenth century, but it was not the same with the economy and the society, and the there still were customs between the different realms. In the early eighteenth century, with the Borbns, the political unity occurred.Besides, Spain has the thirteenth-largest economy by nominal GDP in the world, and fourteenth-largest by purchasing power parity. The Spanish economy is the fifth-largest in the European Union, and the fourth-largest in the Eurozone, based on nominal GDP statistics. In 2012, Spain was the eighteenth-largest exporter in the world and the sixteenth-largest importer.
Spain is listed 23rd in UN Human Development Index and 30th in GDP(PPP) per capita by World Bank, thus it is classified as high income economy and among the countries of very high human development. However, since the GFC, the Spanish economy's recent macroeconomic performance has been poor. Between 2008 and 2012, the economic boom of the 2000s was reversed, leaving over a quarter of Spain's workforce unemployed by 2012. In 2012, the Spanish economy contracted by 1.4% .
Despite the poor recent performance of the Spanish economy generally, Spain's international trade situation has improved. During the boom years, Spain had built up a trade deficit eventually reaching a record amounting to 10% of GDP (2007). During the economic downturn, Spain has been significantly reducing imports, increasing exports and kept attracting growing numbers of tourists. As a result, in 2013 it achieved a trade surplus for the first time in three decades.
Spain is a member of the...

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