“Vicious, you hit me with a flower” Lou Reed.
The Government’s propaganda with economic data is incessant. However, the reason they have to repeat it endlessly is because it doesn’t work. The average Spaniard knows that he is poorer and the Government’s euphoria does not reflect the reality of families.
An obvious example is that of the media celebration with the IMF estimates. “The IMF places Spain as the largest advanced economy that grows the most for the second consecutive year.”
Sounds good, right? However, one need only go into the details of the IMF report itself and the propaganda house of cards is collapsing.
A stagnant GDP per capita (Table B.1 IMF October 2025). After squandering the largest monetary and fiscal stimulus in history, more than 400,000 million euros of new debt, 300,000 million of monetary stimuli and more than 80,000 million euros of European funds, in addition to having a historical record of tourism and the tailwind effect of a falling oil and gas price, the GDP per capita of Spain 2020-2026 barely grows 1.1% annually.
Inflating GDP with immigration and public spending is a recipe for stagnation
The difference, in GDP per capita, leaves Spain behind Portugal and with an evolution very similar to that of the European Union average.
In fact, GDP per capita, according to the IMF, grows less than that of Japan in 2025 and less than the euro zone average in 2026.
Inflating GDP with immigration and public spending is a recipe for stagnation.
A very high unemployment rate. Even using the official calculation methodology, the IMF certifies that Spain will continue to be the country with the highest unemployment rate of all the economies in the table in 2026, 10.7%. You will say that this has always been the case, but it is not true.
In 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, Greece surpassed us by far. Since then, Greece has reduced unemployment much more quickly and without hiding 740,000 permanently inactive discontinuous workers from the number of official unemployed, as the Government of Spain does.
The IMF report also reflects this greater destruction of purchasing power
More inflation than the euro zone average. According to the INE, we have already had the CPI on the rise for six months and well above the eurozone average. The IMF report also reflects this greater destruction of purchasing power. Inflation (CPI) in Spain was higher in 2024 and will also be higher than the eurozone average in 2025.
More deficit. And that deficit is calculated over nominal GDP, with which the denominator is inflated with immigration and higher inflation. The deficit in 2026 will still be 2.4%, higher than the eurozone average.
With these figures, no one in their right mind would celebrate the IMF’s estimates, but what matters to the Government is propaganda.
Alberto Nuñez Feijóo stated in a parliamentary debate that “the GDP cannot be eaten”, recalling a phrase by Leire Pajín from many years ago. None of them are right.
The GDP, inflated by an increase in unsustainable public spending and debt and a population increase due to immigration of more than two million people, reflects a starving and stunted GDP per capita, perfectly consistent with the reality that real net wages have fallen and citizens are right to feel empirically poorer.
Is there nothing to celebrate in the IMF estimates? Of course, two things that the Government is silent about: The admirable solidity and growth of tourism and hospitality, which have survived the constant hacking, taxes and obstacles, and the exemplary behavior of families and companies that endure despite impoverishment.
The IMF report gives no reason to celebrate anything, but it does confirm that the Government of Spain has squandered a unique opportunity.
Congratulations, the Government of Spain has followed point by point the policies of Greece in 2005-2007, which also presented itself as “the engine of growth” of the EU. Then we all know what happened.