The Canary Islands economy grew by 12.2% during the first quarter of 2022, compared to the previous year, almost double the state average of 6.4%, according to data from the Quarterly Accounts of the Autonomous Community, prepared by the Canary Islands Institute of Statistics.
The Vice President of Finance, Román Rodríguez, highlighted "the intensity of the economic recovery that the Canary Islands is experiencing, despite an international context characterized by supply problems in global chains, the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and inflationary tensions." "An intensity, however, that will be conditioned by these uncertainties," he adds.
Rodríguez explained that, despite all these circumstances, the Canary Islands economy is showing an "excellent" performance, which also derives from the reduction in unemployment, the increase in Social Security affiliations registered during that first quarter, or the tourist recovery to monopolize a third of the hotel overnight stays registered throughout the State during March.
It also points to state leadership in retail trade with an increase of more than 17% and the growth of tax collection in the first quarter of 51.4% compared to the previous year and 11.16% with reference to 2019. Specifically, IGIC revenues rose by 61.9% in relation to the first three months of 2021 and 12.6% compared to the 2019 financial year.
In fact, the data for the fourth month of the year have been especially positive, since the Canary Islands had not fallen below 200,000 unemployed since 2008 - 198,981 were registered - and the number of Social Security contributors was the highest in history, with 839,049 affiliates.
"All these data put us in a hopeful scenario, although we will have to wait for the coming months to see if it consolidates depending on the development of events on a global scale," says the vice president, who added that, "in any case, what is discredited is the catastrophic discourse that is being instigated from certain political circles."
According to ISTAC data, the Canary Islands economy also grew by 0.5% compared to the previous quarter, while the increase at the state level was 0.3%. By autonomous communities, only data from Andalusia, Navarra, the Basque Country and Catalonia are still available, which in no case reached 7% growth in relation to the first quarter of last year.
All Canary Islands economic sectors registered increases compared to 2021, especially the services sector, with an increase of 14.2%, followed by agriculture, with 2.5%, industry, with 1.9%, and construction, with 1.3%.
