The Canary Islands economy exceeded "expectations by far" in 2023, as it was expected that the GDP would grow by 3.5% and it did so by 3.9%, according to the Regional Economic Situation Bulletin corresponding to the fourth quarter of 2023, presented by the Chamber of Commerce of Tenerife.
The Spanish GDP as a whole grew by 2.5% in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to the advance data from National Accounting published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
The president of the Tenerife Chamber, Santiago Sesé, emphasized that the amount of GDP was 47,183 million euros in 2019 and has increased to 54,240 million in 2023, which, he added, is a sign of the resilience of the Canary Islands economy.
The president of the Chamber of Commerce also highlighted the increase in the employed population, so that for the first time it has exceeded one million people in that situation, and commented that unemployment figures have also increased, which is due to the increase in the active population and structural problems, said Santiago Sesé.
The business results have been "very favorable" during 2023 and regarding the expectations for 2024 he pointed out that it is positive to talk about growth, although it slows down to around 1.5%.
Santiago Sesé warned that this growth will be "very linked" to tourism and spoke of domestic demand, which will continue, based mainly on the increase in employment and income due to salary reviews, the moderation of inflation rates and interest rates.
In his opinion, we must bet on quality and productivity, as well as on training, and Santiago Sesá gave great importance to streamlining the management of Next Generation funds in a public-private collaboration to achieve transformation in sustainability and digitization.
