All things considered, doing quite well

摘要

The recent worldwide recessionary trends have also been felt in Spain and in the last full year its economy grew by 2.8% compared with 4.1% in the previous year. This seems to have signalled an end to an eight-year period of economic expansion with growth rates of more than 4% in three consecutive years. With a growth rate of 2.1% at the end of 2001, Spain appears to have coped well with the crisis that affected other economies in 2001. The slackening in the Spanish economy is put down more to internal rather than external factors, with internal demand for capital goods showing a strong downward trend and lower levels of disposable income. Investment grew in 2001 by only 2.5% compared with 5.7% in the previous year with investment in capital goods showing a fall (-2.2%). The performance of the leather sectors of Spain must be examined against this background of the country's general economic performance.