Press Release 24/01/2020

ADVANCE QUARTERLY ACCOUNTS (ACET) IV/2019

The GDP of the Basque Country grew at an annual rate of 2.2% in 2019

There was a rise of 1.6% in employment for 2019 as a whole

The GDP balance for 2019 closed with average growth of 2.2% regarding 2018 as a whole, according to estimations from the Advance Quarterly Accounts made by EUSTAT. Employment in 2019, measured as full-time equivalent jobs, rose 1.6% compared to the previous year, with the creation of over 15,000 jobs over the year.

In the fourth quarter of 2019, GDP increased 2.2% in year-on-year terms (in respect to the fourth quarter of 2018), once corrected for calendar and seasonal effects. This is one tenth higher than the growth estimated in the third quarter of 2019.

Regarding the previous quarter, the estimated variation rate of GDP, corrected and deseasonalised in the fourth quarter of the year, stood at 0.4%, one tenth down on the growth estimated in the previous quarter.

From the perspective of supply, the year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter growth in the final quarter of 2019 is primarily due to the improvement observed in industry and to the positive performance of the services sector as a whole.

Employment, measured as full-time equivalent jobs, increased by 1.3% compared to the same quarter of the previous year, three tenths lower than the growth observed in the previous quarter. Corrected and deseasonalised growth was estimated at 0.1%, also three tenths lower than that estimated for the previous quarter.

On 6 March EUSTAT will publish the disaggregated estimates of GDP and Employment in its Quarterly Accounts for the fourth quarter of 2019, after incorporating the relevant information that was not available when the Advance Quarterly Accounts were prepared.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62