Quarterly Accounts. Q1/2024

Thegross domestic product of Catalonia registers a year-over-year variation of 2.5% in the first quarter of 2024. In quarter-over-quarter terms, the variation is 0.7%.

The Quarterly Accounts estimates add the full short-term economic information for the first quarter of 2024, entailing a reduction of one tenth of a percentage point with respect to the quarterly GDP advance published on 8 May 2024, in both the year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter rate of change.

From the point of view of demand, domestic demand is the component which contributes most to GDP growth, with a variation of 2.2%, the same rate as in the previous quarter. This growth is explained by increases in final consumption expenditure by government (4.4%) and household consumer expenditure (2.3%). By contrast, gross capital formation is down (−0.1%), as a result of the reduction in investment in capital goods (−1.1%) and growth in investment in construction (1.4%).

As for the foreign sector, total exports showed a year-over-year variation of −0.4%. This figure is the outcome of the decrease in exports of goods and services (−2.8%), while consumption by foreigners rose by 15.7%. Total imports were down by 2.3%, as imports of goods and services fell by 3.1% and consumption by residents abroad increased by 14.7%.

On the supply side, all sectors show positive developments in activity. They include industry, with high growth coming to 4.4%, and agriculture, at 5.5% after two and a half years of negative growth. Services were up by 2.2% and construction by 1.3%.

The Quarterly Accounts are consistent with the corresponding Annual Economic Accounts for Catalonia. Quarterly series should be considered provisional, as the necessary coherence between annual and quarterly estimates requires quarterly estimates to be modified, at least as long as the annual estimates are provisional.