The Cercle d'Economia has opened a debate stating that since the beginning of the century in Catalonia there has been an absolute stagnation in the standard of living and a relative decline compared to Spain and Europe. Said affirmation received a full response from the same president of the Generalitat in the days of the Cercle. Many economic indicators have been brought up: GDP per capita, GDP, the unemployment rate, the employed population and the volume of foreign investment, among others. If we add to this that each point of view selects different periods of analysis and emphasizes the differences depending on whether the results are compared with the rest of Spain or the EU, we conclude that it is not easy to classify the Catalan economy as decadent or not from the information available.
On the other hand, it is possible, by selecting an indicator such as GDP and comparing its evolution between the Catalan economy and that of Madrid, to point out their differences and, what may be more substantial, to analyze the explanatory causes of said differences. On the greater dynamism of Madrid in GDP growth, there seems to be no debate. If we compare the cumulative annual of Catalonia for the period 1955-2021 with that of Madrid, we observe that the latter has been 8.9% higher. Throughout the last four decades, only in the period 1985-1995, in which the Olympic Games were held, the GDP of the Catalan economy grew above that of Madrid. Since then, GDP growth in Madrid has been 44% higher than that of Catalonia. All this has led to Madrid, since 2017, registering a higher GDP than Catalonia year after year. In 1955 it was 17% lower than that of Catalonia; at the turn of the century it was practically 8.8%, and now it is 3.7% higher.
It is not easy to identify the causes of this change in leadership in the Spanish economy. Is it the lack of public investment or an inadequate financing system? Are they the economic effects of the process or the existence of a communications system in which Madrid acts as a center? Are the different economic policies of the governments of the two communities? J. Fernández-Villaverde and T. Santos also point out that the growth of Madrid, region, has been sustained to a much greater extent than in Barcelona in the metropolitan agglomeration of Madrid due to the physical possibility of expanding, which is not the case in Barcelona. In addition, the governance of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, with a surface area of 636 km², is built with the 36 municipalities that form part of it, while the city of Madrid alone has a surface area of 604 km², very similar to that of the WBA. It is not surprising, on the other hand, that this crucial aspect, beyond some calls for attention, has not been part of the debate in the recent municipal elections.
Reaching an opinion that is as shared as possible on the causes that explain Madrid's leadership should be the first step for Catalonia to regain its leading role.
