January 2026| No. 507

We begin the year by addressing one of the major challenges of the European and Spanish economies in a new Dossier: «An analysis of European productivity». In it, we explore the recent dynamics in productivity within the European Union, focusing on its territorial dispersion and the differentiating factors between the best and worst performing regions. After providing some initial context by outlining the main trends, we distinguish the different groups of European regions according to their productivity level and analyse the key economic factors that drive it. Finally, we identify the factors that hinder productivity growth in the Spanish economy, and those that could drive it, focusing on the evolution of productivity in the various autonomous community regions and on their defining traits, and we compare them with other European regions.