Alejandra Olcese
Updated Friday, January 19, 2024-01:51
Forecasts The Government foresees a slowdown in productivity per worker: employment will grow more than GDP
Total factor productivity
(TFP) in Spain - that is, the degree of efficiency with which employment and capital are allocated to produce - has accumulated a
fall
of 7.3% since 2000,
which has contributed to slowing down the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per inhabitant and aggravate the gap between our country and the rest of European countries, according to a report published today by the BBVA Foundation and the IVIE to which EL MUNDO has had access.
This poor performance of productivity in Spain
contrasts with the good evolution
that this indicator has registered in other European countries such as
Germany
, where it has increased by 11.8% in the same period, or in the
United States
, where it has registered a growth of 15%. ,5%.
The difference is due to the lower efficiency in the allocation of both the labor factor and capital.
"
TFP levels have fallen
in Spain during
most of the 21st century,
while productive efficiency improved in the EU, and in the United States it improved even more," point out the researchers who authored the document.
The only positive part of this evolution is that
since 2013
, when Spain began to recover from the impact of the financial crisis, productivity has registered
"a modest improvement"
in this indicator, which registered an increase of 1.2% to the year 2019. The upward trend was interrupted in 2020 by the pandemic, as restrictions interrupted activity in many economic sectors and plunged productivity by 5.1%;
but since then the growth path has been resumed and this metric accumulates an increase of 2.8% accumulated in 2021 and 2022 - latest data available -.
The recovery of these last two years has not been enough to return to pre-covid levels.
In addition to analyzing its evolution, the authors of the report explain
the causes
of productivity problems in the Spanish economy: "Different factors appear at the origins of productivity problems: excess capacity in
real estate assets,
lack of investment in
intangible
assets
during the first decade of the century, the insufficient use of
educational improvements
and the
delay in structural reforms
that boost product and service markets and improve the allocation of production factors," they summarize.
Regarding the efficiency with which capital is allocated, the authors specify that Spanish companies incurred an "
excessive accumulation of real estate assets"
during the sector bubble, both residential and other types, which are now underutilized, which hinders productivity.
"Sectors such as construction - as a supplier - and hospitality, energy and many service activities - such as intensive demand for warehouses, commercial premises or offices, as well as housing - attracted
enormous investments that were not very productive
. These investments led to excesses of unused capacity, which emerged especially when the economy entered a recession," they specify.
These premises or properties were purchased thinking about the profitability they would offer due to the expected price increase, but not thinking about whether they would be productive if used.
A second reason would be Spain's lower investment in
intangible assets,
such as Investment and Development
(R&D),
software, databases, training, etc., which usually improve the efficiency of companies.
"Compared to advanced economies, Spain occupies
the last position
in investment in intangibles, to which it only allocates
40.5% of the total investment.
Although the percentage is significant, in countries such as the United Kingdom, Finland, the United States, France or Sweden, these investments are the majority, exceeding by 20 percentage points the weight they have in Spain," they highlight.
Our country is also the one that allocates the least to investment in intangibles in relation to GDP (9.5% in 2020, half that of France or the United States).
Less productive employment
Regarding work efficiency, Spain also has its own circumstances that contribute to its low productivity.
This is the case of "
poor educational results
and
temporary
employment", the "less use of qualified labor than in most European countries" and the predominance of "unprofessionalized management models in many companies."
The last two factors are influenced by the
composition
of the productive fabric, with more weight in sectors that generate less added value (less intensive in knowledge and in the use of Information and Communication Technologies) and a high proportion of
small and medium-sized companies. .
The combination of a reduction in productivity in Spain and the improvement in the rest of the countries results in an
increase in the gap
between
per capita income
in Spain and the EU average.
This differential has increased sixfold in the last two decades, going
from 2.4% to 14.4%.
Thus, while at the beginning of the century per capita income in Spain was 2.4% below the community average, today this indicator is 14.4% below.