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Making hay - outlook still sunny in Spain?

Chart of the week
Macro

5/23/2025

Despite some clouds gathering, we remain optimistic about Spain’s economic prospects. Investment in machinery and equipment has been especially encouraging in Q1 2025.

madrid-city
Making hay - outlook still sunny in Spain?

What a difference ten years can make. Not so long ago, Spain was still in the midst of an economic and social crisis. Many young people were loudly protesting against their lack of job prospects, while others were quietly leaving the country in droves. As we previously pointed out, it appears Spain has instead become a land of opportunity.[1] Since 2019, the number of foreign-born workers has increased by more than 1.2 million, mostly from Latin America.

Openness to migrants and foreign investments explains some, but by no means all of Spain’s substantial economic outperformance compared to much of the . Spain has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Next Generation Fund, the European Union's aid program to tackle the pandemic. Much of the recent success also reflects post- reforms to banks and the labor market. Renegotiating labor contracts has become easier and encouraged employers to hire more permanent staff. Due to sharp increases in the minimum wage, the incomes of poorer Spaniards have risen faster than the average wage.

This also points to some of the potential clouds gathering over Spain’s model economy. As our Chart of the Week shows, construction spending on both housing and other buildings fell off a cliff in the post crisis years, leading to housing shortages and rising rents, to the delight of real estate investors.[2] 

Investment Traffic Lights
Equities

5/6/2025

The monthly Investment Traffic Lights provide a detailed market analysis and our view on developments in the main asset classes. 

Traffic Light in between two buildings

In Spain, investment in machinery and equipment is finally recovering.

indexed: 1/1/10 = 100

Line chart with 3 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying Time. Data ranges from 2010-01-01 00:00:00 to 2025-10-01 00:00:00.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying values. Data ranges from 66.55 to 132.63.
End of interactive chart.

Sources: Haver Analytics Inc., DWS Investment GmbH, as of May 2025

Spain’s minority government has had to juggle conflicting demands of various left-wing and nationalist parties, while passing tax increases to gradually reduce the , at the same time as boosting miserly defense spending.

“Overall, we continue to see good reasons to remain optimistic,” argues Ulrike Kastens, Senior Economist Europe at DWS. “Especially encouraging is that investment in machinery and equipment has finally recovered to its pre-Covid levels. Tourism is holding up well and Spain is also increasingly successful at exporting other services, such as technology consulting and engineering. But with other European countries also finally tackling some of their growth bottlenecks, it remains to be seen how long Spain’s outperformance can last.”