The growth of the Spanish economy in recent years has been driven by strong demand and a substantial expansion of production in the context of an increasingly open economy.

Today Spain has a domestic market of 44 million people with a per capita income (ppp) of 28,809 as estimated by the FMI for the year 2007, and an additional injection of demand coming from the nearly 56 million tourists11 who visit the country every year. The close links with Latin America and North Africa and the obvious advantages of using Spain as a gateway to those countries are worthy of mention.

Table 6 reflects the evolution of basic production and demand components. The growth rate of the Spanish economy has stabilized due to rising domestic demand offset by a less positive contribution from the external sector. In addition to the significant rise in demand, there was a notable acceleration in gross fixed capital formation and all the main areas made positive contributions, with the exception of agriculture.