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Spain included 28.4 billion euros from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, NGEU’s main instrument, in the 2022 General Government Budget. Have expectations been met? Are the investments and reforms being implemented as planned?

Between the end of September and the end of February, the US dollar depreciated by 6% in effective nominal terms and by 10% against the euro, trading at close to 1.07, a level not seen for almost a year. We explore what lies behind this change of trend and whether it is likely to continue.

Although it is still far from the 2% target rate, inflation in both the euro area and the US has fallen steadily throughout 2023, and one of the key assumptions in our 2024 outlook is that it will continue to do so next year, facilitating the first interest rate cuts by the Fed and the ECB. But how robust is this disinflationary assumption? How much of a hurry are the central banks in to lower rates?

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in Spanish firms has accelerated in recent years, but the process has been uneven and remains incomplete. This article analyses the extent of AI penetration considering four key dimensions: company size, sectoral differences, specific uses within organisations and the main barriers hindering its deployment, as well as a comparison with the rest of Europe. Understanding how and where AI is being incorporated is particularly important from a business and macroeconomic perspective, as its adoption influences efficiency and productivity gains and can widen gaps between firms, sectors and workers in a productive fabric like Spain’s, which is dominated by SMEs and microenterprises.

Trade protectionism has been part of the new geopolitical normal for years now, but it has reached its peak in 2025 with the new US administration. In this more hostile environment and in the absence of an effective multilateral forum, the EU continues to make efforts to broaden its economic relations with different regions of the world. The strategy of diversification has become a valuable tool, not only in the search for markets with high export growth potential, but also in making progress towards the desired strategic autonomy.