More than two decades of this century have not been enough to correct the inequalities of the Catalan and Spanish economy with the most developed European countries. Although since 2000, the community's economy has grown. He has done it in an anomalous way. While the evolution of the five most developed European countries has shown a stable trend, in Catalonia the different crises suffered, especially the real estate and financial crisis of 2007 and the covid crisis of 2020, have been abruptly marked, separating it from Europe.
The GDP per inhabitant in real terms in the second quarter of 2023 in Catalonia was 12.9% above what it was in 2000. But it is still below the highs of 2019 and at the same level as in 2007. “ The evolution is very volatile and irregular,” says Joan Ramon Rovira, director of the studies service of the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, which is the one who carried out the study. “This evolution takes away the quality of growth,” he adds. But when the evolution is analyzed in relation to the five most developed European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands) it is noted that so far this century the gap has not been reduced and Catalonia is poorer than its European neighbors. In 2000, the difference in GDP per capita corrected by purchasing parity was 27.1 points between Catalonia and the most advanced countries in Europe, while last year it stood at 26.8. Along the way, throughout the period, there have been periods in which the gap has narrowed, such as in the years of the economic boom prior to the pandemic, and others in which it has increased, such as with Covid.
Another way to analyze the quality of growth is the evolution of the salary per hour worked. It remains the same as in 2004. La Cambra has calculated the evolution of the average salary per hour worked in Catalonia in constant prices discounting inflation. That average salary grew with the crisis and with Covid due to the departure of many workers, but now it has moderated again. The productivity of the Catalan and Spanish economies has a “countercyclical” evolution, details Rovira. In crises, the mass dismissal of workers causes an artificial increase in productivity because there are fewer active employees. The opposite happens in moments of expansion.
Rovira and the rest of the Chamber team have analyzed other indicators of progress and well-being and in most of them they have not been able to close the gap with Europe. In education, premature abandonment of studies continues to be higher in Catalonia: 16.9% of young people compared to 10% in the five large European countries. In health, the Chamber maintains that “Catalonia presents a structural deficit of personnel in primary medical care and nursing professionals.” In 2021, there were 7.5 primary doctors or pediatricians per 10,000 inhabitants, while in Europe there were five more, 11.5.
Where the situation has worsened significantly is poverty, understood as material deprivation of households. Families that cannot afford basic expenses such as going on vacation one week a year, buying a television, a washing machine or a car are 17.8% of the total population. In the five most developed countries this percentage fell to 11.1%.
