Economic Report on Andalusia

380 Pages·2006·2.9 MB·English

2005
Economic Report on Andalusia
© 2006, by the Consejería de Economía y Hacienda,
Junta de Andalucía
Written by Secretaría General de Economía
Coordinated by Dirección General de Tesorería y Deuda Pública
Translated by Seprotec, traducción e interpretación, S.L.
Published by Servicio de Asesoría Técnica y Publicaciones
Designed and printed by Graficas Rosso S.L.
ISBN:
Legal deposit:
Printed in Seville, Spain
List of Contents
1. World Economy 11
2. Spanish Economy 35
3. Overview of the Andalusian Economy 51
4. Population 81
5. Productive Sectors 97
Primary Sector 99
Industrial Sector 113
Construction Sector 127
Services Sector 143
6. Aggregate Demand 161
7. Foreign Trade and Investment in Andalusia 175
8. Structure of the Business Sector 201
9. Labour Market 217
10. Prices, Labour, Costs and Income 247
11. Banking System 267
12. Andalusia in the Context of Spanish Region 287
13. Convergence between Andalusia and the European Union 315
14. New Economy and Knowledge Society in Andalusia 325
List of tables 367
List of Charts 373
List of boxes 381

Presentation
The Regional Ministry of Economy and Finance presents its eighteenth successive Economic Report on Andalusia, this
time for 2005, featuring a detailed study of the Andalusian economy’s performance in relation to those of its benchmark
economies.
This year the world economy again displayed a strong growth rate, albeit more restrained than was seen the previous
year, with the rising pattern registered since 2002 being checked in an almost across-the-board slowdown over the
various areas.
The developing economies remained at the forefront of world growth with the Asian countries notably vigorous, in
particular China, which accounted for almost one third of world economic growth in 2005.
Against a backdrop of widespread economic slowdown, Japan proved the exception among the industrialised
countries, using 2005 to build on the recovery it began two years earlier. The USA, however, was once again the
country showing the largest relative growth, this comprising nearly half of the rise in GDP among the industrialised
economies for the year.
The growth rate in the European Union and the euro area also slackened, doing so to a greater extent than on average
among the industrialised nations and with some of the most representative economies, such as Germany and Italy,
conspicuously weaker.
In this scenario of world economic slowdown the Andalusian economy posted real GDP growth of 3.6% in 2005,
thus keeping up the growth cycle begun in 1994 for a twelfth successive year and showing distinctive buoyancy with
respect to the economies around it.
Andalusia’s economic growth was specifically two tenths of a point higher than the national average (3.4%) and more
than double that for the euro area (1.4%), allowing it to continue moving closer towards and more into line with its
benchmark economies. GDP per capita for Andalusia reached 79.3% of the Spanish average in 2005, 0.3 points more
than for the year before, and stood at over 75% of the average for the EU-25.
On the supply side, growth for the Andalusian economy was underpinned by non-farm sectors which, taken together,
proved more dynamic than in 2004, bettering results in Spain and, above all, the euro area.
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Concerning demand, indicators on the one hand confirm the noticeable strength of the internal components of
consumption and investment and, on the other, fresh progress in integrating Andalusia into world markets. The openness
of the Andalusian economy, the combination of exports plus imports with respect to GDP, hit its highest level for the
last five years in 2005, with the export rate, the ratio of exports to export goods (farming and industrial), at a historic
high.
These results for supply and demand were accompanied by vigorous business venture activity and a striking pick-up
in the process of creating jobs and cutting jobless numbers, with higher rates than those registered for the Spanish and
European economies as a whole.
Regarding business structure, the number of non-farming enterprises was 5.1% higher than the previous year, which
is one point over the national level (4.1%), with Andalusia reinforcing its status as the autonomous region with the
second largest business sector. Furthermore, as has been observed without let-up since 1997, Andalusia continued to
show a lower relative propensity among companies to dissolve than on average in Spain.
In terms of the labour market, the rate of job creation picked up significantly, contributing to a sizeable drop-off in
jobless numbers and leaving the unemployment rate at its lowest level for twenty-six years.
According to the LFS ( the Labour Force Survey), the population in work in Andalusia rose by 7.1% in 2005, the highest
rate recorded, beating the previous year’s figure by almost two points and coming in above average growth in Spain
(5.6%) and, above all, among the EU-25 (1.6%).
This meant that the all-time absolute high was reached in 2005 of 2,959,600 people in work in Andalusia, which was
196,500 more than in the previous year and accounted for almost one fifth of total job creation on a national scale and
6.3% among the EU-25. These percentages outstripped the relative weight of Andalusia’s working population within
the Spanish and European economies as a whole (15.6% and 1.5%, respectively).
Among the most significant features of job creation it is worth noting that, on the one hand, it was relatively more
intensive in the non-farming sectors, especially in industry and services, and among women, the under 25s and wage-
earners with open-ended contracts. On the other hand, it was concentrated on the private sector and more highly
qualified workers, that is those with secondary or university education, who represented 80% of the total of those in
a job in Andalusia.
Together with this surge in employment, a notable rise was seen in the labour force, this hitting the historic high of
54.3% and moving towards average levels in Spain. The relatively stronger job growth relative to labour force growth
led to a major drop in the number of jobless, which, according to the LFS stood at –16.3% year-on-year, which was
more than the average drop in Spain, with almost one third of the total fall in unemployment nationally focusing on
Andalusia.
In the realm of prices and against a background of rising oil prices on world markets, the Andalusian economy ended
2005 with a higher inflation rate than the previous year, though this was lower than the Spanish average. Meanwhile,
pay-rises outstripped price increases, prompting a gain in purchasing power, which in Andalusia doubled that seen
nationally.
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This all took place in an environment in which Andalusia continued to exhibit more vigour than the nation as a whole
in the process of implementing and using information and communication technologies and it drew closer to average
levels across Spain with respect to what has come to be termed the “new economy”, “information society”, or the
“knowledge society”.
A comparison of these results for the Andalusian economy with those returned for the other regional autonomies shows
Andalusia to have been one of the most buoyant regions in the Spanish economy in 2005, after seeing relatively higher
growth rates in, for example, GDP generation, employment, trade and entrepreneurial activity, as well as being notable
as one of the regions with least inflation.

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1.
World Economy