Madrid AC
Madrid’s economy has remained highly buoyant in recent years, only surpassed by the island regions. The robust performance of GDP in 2023, with estimated growth of 3.0% (2.5% in Spain), was supported by buoyant market services and strong employment, which, coupled with the upturn in foreign (city) tourism, boosted consumer spending.
- The Madrid Autonomous Community has the largest GDP. Furthermore, its higher relative growth has allowed the region to gain importance and it has increased its share of Spanish GDP to 19.4% from 17.7% in 2000.
- The region has had great demographic dynamism in recent decades, thanks to migration flows both from abroad and from other Autonomous Communities. With 7 million inhabitants, 14.3% of the total population, it is the third most highly populated region.
- GDP per capita stands at 38,435 euros, the highest in the country and 36.5% above the average. In recent years, its relative position has followed a slight downward trend, due to strong population growth.
- In terms of sectoral composition, the region is notable for the relative importance of professional and industry-related services (40.5% vs. 28.5% on average in Spain), whereas agricultural activities (0.1% vs. 2.6%) and manufacturing (6.3% vs. 12.5%) account for smaller shares of GDP.
- Reflecting the reduced importance of manufactured goods, this region is not a major exporter, with exports of goods accounting for 22.6% of GDP (28.9% in Spain); despite this, it is the region with the second-highest volume of exports, totalling 51.592 billion euros in 2023 (12.4% of all exports). The main export sectors are chemical products (27.5% of the total), especially pharmaceuticals, energy products (13.7%) – oil products and electricity, which are recorded by the companies – and transport equipment (9.9%). Madrid exports 54% of all of Spain’s engines, 36% of its office and telecommunications equipment and 22% of its chemical products.
Table of structural indicators
| 1992 | 2002 | 2012 | 2022 | |||
GDP per capita | Euros | 12,753 | 24,023 | 30,358 | 38,435 | ||
100 = Spain | 130.3 | 132.8 | 137.7 | 136.5 | |||
Population | Thousands of inhabitants | 5,030 | 5,639 | 6,412 | 6,872 | ||
Average annual growth over the decade (%) | 0.5 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 0.7 | |||
% of total in Spain | 12.8 | 13.5 | 13.7 | 14.3 | |||
% of population > 65 years old | 12.3 | 14.4 | 15.9 | 18.4 | |||
Exports of goods as a proportion of GDP | % | … | 10.8 | 14.3 | 22.6 | ||
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Madrid’s economy has remained highly buoyant in recent years, only surpassed by the island regions. The robust performance of GDP in 2023, with estimated growth of 3.0% (2.5% in Spain), was supported by buoyant market services and strong employment, which, coupled with the upturn in foreign (city) tourism, boosted consumer spending.
In 2024, we expect a slowdown in activity, with GDP growth of 2.2%, which is still higher than the growth rate forecast for Spain as a whole (1.9%). Madrid’s economy will benefit from favourable conditions, with prices and interest rates easing, households in a sound financial position, a dynamic labour market and an expansionary fiscal policy in the region. Furthermore, due to its strong focus on high value-added business services, the region is well positioned to capitalise on the boost in investment being provided by European funds.
It has been among the most buoyant regions in terms of employment. In 2023, the number of registered workers affiliated to Social Security rose by 3.9% (2.7% in Spain), while at the start of 2024 it continues to grow at a faster-than-average rate (3.6% year-on-year in March vs. 2.6%), thus far exceeding pre-pandemic levels (14.1% vs. 9.8%): job creation in professional activities, healthcare and general government has been outstanding over the last year. In terms of the unemployment rate, it stood at 9.7% in Q4 2023, below the average (11.8%) and pre-pandemic levels (10.0% in Q4 2019).
Consumption is also performing well, although it has certainly been more muted in recent months. Thus, after recording the highest growth of all mainland regions in 2023 (5.2% vs. 2.9% in Spain), the volume of retail trade increased by 2.6% in January-February this year, slightly below the average (3.2%), 13.3% higher than it was in 2019 (vs. 3.5%).
Industrial production, of little importance in the region, recorded some of the best figures in the country in 2023
– rising by 2.1% – whereas it fell by 1.4% in Spain. In January this year, the rate picked up to 2.9% year-on-year (vs. 3.6%), so it was 5.6% higher than in 2019 (vs. –2.4%).
Exports of goods shrank by 12.7% in 2023 (vs. –1.4% in Spain), weakened by the sharp decline in medicines (due to vaccine exports returning to normal after the pandemic) and energy (the extraordinary sales of electricity in 2022 were not repeated, having benefited from shutdowns in the French nuclear fleet and the drought in Portugal). In January of this year, despite a further downturn (–23.6% year-on-year vs. –2.5%), they are 57.5% higher than in January 2019 (+29.5% in Spain). In terms of tourism, 7.8 million foreign tourists visited the region in 2023, spending 13.366 billion euros, an increase of 2.7% and 27.9% more than in 2019.
Table of indicators
| 2008-2013 average | 2014-2019 average | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Latest figure | |
Activity and prices | Real GDP* | –0.9 | 3.6 | –10.4 | 6.0 | 7.2 | 3.0 | 2023 | |
–1.8 | 2.8 | –11.2 | 6.4 | 5.8 | 2.5 | ||||
Retail trade | -4.8 | 4.1 | –2.6 | 7.3 | 2.3 | 5.2 | 2.6 | February-24 | |
–5.2 | 2.3 | –5.2 | 3.6 | 0.8 | 2.9 | 3.2 | |||
Industrial production index | –7.3 | 2.4 | –6.6 | 5.4 | 6.9 | 2.1 | 2.9 | January-24 | |
–5.3 | 1.8 | –9.2 | 7.1 | 2.5 | –1.4 | 3.6 | |||
Service activity index | –5.2 | 6.1 | –18.3 | 20.3 | 22.8 | –1.9 | –1.2 | January-24 | |
–4.6 | 5.1 | –15.6 | 22.0 | 18.3 | 2.2 | 2.8 | |||
Consumer price index | 1.7 | 0.7 | –0.4 | 2.7 | 7.5 | 3.0 | 2.6 | February-24 | |
1.7 | 0.7 | –0.3 | 3.1 | 8.4 | 3.5 | 2.8 | |||
Labour market | Registered workers affiliated to Social Security | –2.5 | 3.7 | –1.3 | 2.7 | 4.7 | 3.9 | 3.6 | March-24 |
–3.1 | 3.2 | –2.1 | 2.5 | 3.9 | 2.7 | 2.6 | |||
Registered workers affiliated to Social Security not affected by furlough | –2.5 | 3.7 | –8.5 | 7.9 | 7.6 | 4.6 | 3.9 | March-24 | |
–3.1 | 3.2 | –9.2 | 7.3 | 7.3 | 3.4 | 3.0 | |||
Unemployment rate | 15.5 | 14.6 | 12.5 | 11.6 | 11.2 | 10.2 | –– | Q4 2023 | |
20.2 | 18.8 | 15.5 | 14.8 | 12.9 | 12.1 | –– | |||
Unemployment rate for under 25s | 37.7 | 38.0 | 31.8 | 29.3 | 29.3 | 28.2 | –– | Q4 2023 | |
42.5 | 42.5 | 38.3 | 44.7 | 23.9 | 27.2 | –– | |||
Public sector | Public deficit | –1.2 | –0.8 | 0.0 | 0.3 | –0.7 | –0.7 | –– | 2023 |
–2.7 | –0.9 | –0.2 | 0.0 | –1.1 | –0.9 | –– | |||
Autonomous Communities public debt | 8.0 | 14.1 | 15.8 | 14.5 | 13.3 | 12.6 | –– | Q4 2023 | |
12.3 | 24.1 | 27.2 | 25.6 | 23.6 | 22.2 | –– | |||
Real estate market | Housing prices | –9.2 | 8.4 | 1.7 | 2.5 | 6.8 | 3.9 | –– | Q4 2023 |
–8.1 | 5.3 | 2.1 | 3.7 | 7.4 | 4.0 | –– | |||
Housing sales | –6.9 | 10.0 | –18.5 | 38.3 | 3.2 | –16.1 | –11.6 | January-24 | |
–10.8 | 9.7 | –16.9 | 34.8 | 14.8 | –9.9 | –2.1 | |||
Foreign sector and tourism | Exports of goods | 7.1 | 2.4 | -5.5 | 35.3 | 48.2 | –12.7 | –23.6 | January-24 |
4.6 | 3.9 | –9.4 | 20.1 | 22.9 | –1.4 | –2.5 | |||
Tourist overnight stays | 0.9 | 5.7 | –68.6 | 68.5 | 68.7 | 12.9 | 9.5 | February-24 | |
0.7 | 3.0 | –69.2 | 78.3 | 73.3 | 7.2 | 7.6 |
Note: *The 2023 GDP figure for Autonomous Communities is an estimate made by CaixaBank Research.
Source: CaixaBank Research, based on data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), the Bank of Spain, the Ministry of Labour, Migration and Social Security (MITRAMISS), the Ministry of Finance and DataComex.
Below we show a series of charts comparing the main indicators for the various regions.