The communities of Madrid, the Balearic Islands, Andalusia, Catalonia, and the Canary Islands, in that order, will lead the country's economic growth in 2026.
All of them will exceed the national average, which is projected to be 1.9%, according to the report on economic forecasts for the autonomous communities in 2025-2026 released this Thursday by the think tank Funcas.
Madrid will be the most active, as, according to Funcas, it will grow by 2.3% in 2026, ahead of Balearic Islands and Andalusia, which will stand at 2.1% in both cases. Following them, Catalonia and the Canary Islands, both communities at 2.0%.
On the contrary, **Murcia and Cantabria**, with a projected growth of 1.3% in both cases, will be **the regions that will grow the least** next year, according to the aforementioned report.
In the presentation, the CEO of Funcas, Carlos Ocaña, and the head of Economic Outlook and International Economy, Raymond Torres, highlighted that the economic evolution is positive, as shown by the fact that all regions have recovered their pre-pandemic economic level.
They have also highlighted the good evolution of employment, which has improved in all autonomous communities and will continue to do so next year, although they have drawn attention to the "great inequality" between different regions.
Torres has justified this inequality by the weight that some and others have in industry and market services (as is the case in Madrid or Catalonia), in tourism (as in the island communities), or in the productive fabric (as in the Basque Country, Navarre, or the Valencian Community).
He pointed out that another differentiating factor between one autonomous community and another has to do with the evolution of the active population, which is growing more in the "more dynamic" communities. "Where the active population has grown the most to work, it has tended to grow more," he asserted.
