INTERES Invest in Spain

“The Lisbon Council” and “Allianz” have for the second year running published their annual report entitled “The European Growth and Jobs Monitor 2008” in which the “Lisbon Indicator” is used to make an analysis of the capacity of 14 European economies to meet the objectives of the Lisbon Agenda .

The Lisbon Indicator describes a wide range of information concerning six indicators linked to the objectives of Lisbon with a view to analyzing to what extent these objectives have been met in 14 EU countries:

1.- Economic growth
2.- Productivity growth
3.- Employment
4.- Education and human resources
5.- Profile for future investment
6.- Sustainability of public finances

The indicator is one of very few private sources of information on the evolution of the Lisbon Agenda in Europe.

Spain shows a strongly positive trend, having not met the Lisbon objectives in 2006 (0.93) it came close to meeting them in 2007 (1.10). The indicator grew by 18.27% in just one year.

Spain stands out because of the quality of its investments, the growth levels and the sustainability of its public finances. Greater efforts must be made however to boost productivity. A series of structural measures are actually being executed along these lines as the core of the National Program for Reforms in Spain, the results of which will only be appreciable in the medium term.

The high overall score obtained shows the outstanding economic progress that is being made. If this trend were to continue, the Lisbon objectives could even be exceeded by 2010.

Out of the 14 countries analyzed, eleven have improved their results when compared with the previous year and only Denmark, Sweden and Holland have got worse in comparison with 2006. They were however countries that already held places high up the rankings (1st, 2nd and 5th respectively).

France (0.94), Austria (0.88) and Italy (0.66) are below the EU 15 average. These three countries are the only ones not meeting the objectives laid down by the Lisbon Agenda according to the indicator.

Spain’s progress

Spain’s was in first place out of the 14 countries for the sub-indicator “Profile for Future Investment”, which measures technological progress through investments made in machinery and equipment as a percentage of GDP. Spain also came fourth in the sub-indicator “Sustainability of the Public Finances” because of the primary surplus and the low level of public debt. As for the sub-indicator “Economic Growth”, it was placed 5th because of the high growth rates of its economy over the last few years. Lastly, it was in 6th position for “Education and Human Resources”, which measures the proportion of the population between 25 and 64 years old that has received tertiary education.