Spain has accumulated nearly three decades without managing to converge in terms of productivity with the most advanced European economies. Despite the economic growth and job creation recorded in recent years, the Spanish productive model continues to show serious difficulties in generating a sustained increase in value added per hour worked.
Experts from the General Council of Economists of Spain (CGE) and the Foundation for Applied Economic Studies (Fedea) have warned of this during a technical conference held in Madrid.
According to data presented by Rafael Doménech, head of Economic Analysis at BBVA Research, taking the United States as a base of 100, Spanish productivity in GDP per hour worked stands at around 75%, compared to 97% in reference countries such as Germany, Austria, Belgium, or the Netherlands. This gap of nearly 22 points compared to the European core has remained virtually unchanged since the mid-1990s.
Among the determining factors is the delay in productive business investment. While between 2002 and 2025 investment in machinery, equipment, and technology grew by 50% in the European Union and 56% in the United States, in Spain the accumulated increase was only 15%. Furthermore, public investment stood at 2025 at 2.9% of Spanish GDP, almost one point below the community average (3.8%).
In addition, the structure of the business fabric contributes to this. Antonio García Rebollar, commercial technician and state economist, pointed out that more than 30% of hours worked in Spain are concentrated in low value-added sectors, such as commerce, hospitality, and transport, compared to only 12.4% in industry. Moreover, the high weight of microenterprises penalises overall efficiency, given that large Spanish companies are twice as productive as smaller ones, and firms integrated into multinational groups double the productivity of independent companies.
To reverse this trend, experts agree on the need to eliminate regulatory barriers that discourage the growth of SMEs, strengthen investment in R&D, boost venture capital, and align the training of human capital with technological and labour market demands through lasting state policies.