This paper analyses the extent to which the COVID-19 crisis has shifted the Spanish economy’s international competitiveness, creating new opportunities for Spanish businesses. While the drop in Spanish imports and exports post-COVID-19 (close to 40% year-on-year) was comparable to the contraction sustained in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, the rebound, with year-on-year growth in exports of over 70% in April 2021, has been far more dynamic.
This raises the question of whether Spain is simply catching-up after trade flows were interrupted in 2020 or whether this is the beginning of a significant structural change in Spanish trading patterns. Although it is still too soon to provide a clear answer to that question, initial data point to a structural shift. Spain’s long-standing non-energy trade deficit turned into a surplus in the first half of 2021.
Additionally, the food industry was the sector which made the biggest contribution to the recovery in exports, fuelled mainly by non-EU markets. The fact that the food sector is a core component of Spain’s export effort, and has a history of robust export-oriented productive capacity, is a possible indicator of a structural improvement in the Spanish economy’s international positioning.
13/02/2025
The UNESCO Chair researcher Cristina Campos writes about the paper published in the Journal of Cleaner Production on the CICEP Project, which explores the application of the circular economy in the Canary Islands polymer transformation industry.
10/10/2024
The UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change at ESCI-UPF has published a paper on the new nutritional quality model they have developed based on the life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental performance of protein sources.
03/07/2024
In a new paper published in the Sustainable Production and Consumption journal, researchers from the UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change at ESCI-UPF contribute to calculating the true cost of different protein sources.
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