Galician Economic Data

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The Galician GNP has had an annual growth rate of 3.8% during the period 1986-1993. During the last few years, Galician economic growth had increased above the Spanish national average, but under the Fraga's regime (1991-today), Galicia felt down to the poorest results in his recent history. Looking at the various sectors, 61% of the population is included in the service sector, 30% in industry and 8.5% in agriculture and the fishing industry. In the diagrams, one can observe the importance of the latter sector in relation to the overall figures for Spain.

Human resources

Having the biggest unemployment rate in Spain and one of the bigger ones in the European Union, labour costs in Galicia are 21% lower than the Spanish average, 62% lower than the German ones and 43% below those of France. The low cost of the Galician labour market gives it a quite similar position to the most underdeveloped countries of the world. The distribution of the active population shows the growing incorporation of women into the working environment, especially in the food sector and education, where the presence of women exceeds 54%. But this is not a success of the present government, but a traditional situation in Galicia from centuries ago.

Industrial structure

Galicia has gone through an enormous process of industrialisation based on large scale investment along with the exploitation of natural resources and raw materials. In industrial structure of Galicia combines traditional sectors with new industries which have enormous potential for development, in areas such as electronics, granite and slate quarrying, textiles or the famous Galician fashion industry.

In terms of volume of production, the most representative section are those of energy production, transport and the food sector. One of the keys to Galician development is the increasing importance of small and medium sized industries, above all during the last few years, which has resulted in a process of decentralisation and dispersion. Galician industry produces an annual value added gross product of 685,618 million pesetas ($4,6 billion).