Galicia

• Galicia’s GDP is 81.607 billion euros, 5.1% of the national total, placing it sixth in the overall ranking.
• In demographic terms, the region has 2.72 million inhabitants, 5.5% of Spain’s total population. It is one of the oldest regions – 26.6% of the population is over 65 years old (20.4% on average) – and has one of the smallest foreign populations (6.1% of the total vs. 13.8%).
• GDP per capita stands at 30,105 euros, almost 7.7% below the national average, although it has been making up ground in recent years, not so much due to notable growth in GDP, but because of a slight decline in its population.
• In terms of its productive sectors, Galicia is notable for the relative importance of construction (6.7% vs. the national average of 5.9%), the manufacturing industry (15.1% vs. 11.9%) and the public sector (5.0% vs. 2.7%). In contrast, industry-related services account for a far smaller percentage (23.4% vs. 29.7%).
• Galicia is notably export-oriented: exports of goods account for the highest proportion of GDP of all regions (38.0%, 14 points above the Spanish average). In 2024, its goods exports amounted to 31.020 billion euros, 8.1% of Spanish exports: the leading export sectors are textiles (23.3% of the total), the motor vehicle industry (20.9%) and food (13.3%), especially fish. The region exports 38% of the country’s textile products and over half of its fish products.

According to CaixaBank Research estimates, Galicia’s GDP will grow by 2.8% in 2025, at a similar rate to the Spanish economy as a whole (2.9%). Industry is recovering, especially its powerful motor vehicle industry, whereas exports and consumption are somewhat more sluggish, mirroring the slowdown in employment.

For 2026, our forecasts indicate GDP growth of 2.0% in Galicia, slightly below the national average (2.1%). Against a backdrop of rising wages, easing inflation and falling interest rates, we expect household spending to gain momentum. The faster roll-out of EU funds and improving financing conditions could boost investment and business activity. However, any upturn in exports could be hampered by the weakness of the European economy and rising tariffs.

The Galician labour market is slightly more sluggish than across the country as a whole. The number of registered workers affiliated to Social Security grew by 1.6% in 2024, compared to 2.4% in Spain, while this year has seen a similar trend: 1.8% growth year-on-year in October (vs. 2.4% on average) was supported by job creation in administrative activities, education and healthcare, although there were heavy job losses in the public sector. In turn, the unemployment rate in Q3 2025 stood at 8.0%, 2.5 points below the national average.

Household spending is also seeing more modest growth than in the country as a whole. As such, the volume of sales in the retail trade grew by 1.5% in 2024 (2.1% in Spain) and by 2.3% year-on-year in January-September this year (vs. 3.9%). In turn, after above-average growth in 2024 (11.9% vs. 7.1%), passenger car registrations slowed down in January-October 2025 (7.9% year-on-year vs. 14.9%), so it is one of the regions furthest adrift of 2019 levels (–26.6% vs. –9.4% in Spain).

Galicia’s industrial production is recovering, albeit modestly, from the strong impact of supply problems in global markets in 2022. Thus, in 2024 it recorded meagre growth of 0.9%, although this was better than the figures across Spain as a whole (0.7%), while in the first nine months of this year, the regional IPI picked up slightly and recorded an increase of 1.2% year-on-year (1.1% in Spain): while capital goods and consumer non-durables enjoyed an upswing, the energy sectors were hit by a sharp decline.

Goods exports are performing better than in the country as a whole. In 2024, they grew by 3.3% (vs. 0.2%) and, although in January-August of this year the rate of growth slowed considerably, it is still above average (0.5% year-on-year vs. 0.3%): strong sales in the motor vehicle industry and textile and food sectors – especially fish products – are in stark contrast to the sharp decline (the second in a row) in energy products (oil products), driven by their prices returning to normal.