G3-247 Report SPAIN
Highs and lows When the global recession arrived it felt like someone pressed the pause button on the Spanish channel. Whilst other countries slowly began to crawl their way out of the recession, Spain sat back and let the tidal wave of the crisis wash over it, hoping that by the time the storm subsided there would still be some survivors. There weren’t many to be fair. It left a quarter of the population out of work, the housing market at rock bottom, increasing numbers on the poverty line and a marked rise in crime. Where next for a country that almost ground to a halt?
The problems Spain faces stem back to 2007. According to some economists Spain’s underlying problem is its dependence on external financing due to the ongoing current account deficit. This is turn led to the banks fail- ure in raising external financing and so when the crisis hit, Spain found itself in a unique situation with the doors of the global money markets shut and firmly locked.
The aftermath has been crucifying. Banks stopped lend- ing. Properties remained up for sale. There were appar- ently half a million new homes left lying empty after the housing bubble burst with an estimated one million houses for sale overall.
Five years on the country has found the play button and the country is beginning to see some movement and some changes, albeit slowly and with some interference and buffering.
But stability and growth is on its way and foreign investors are bargain hunting. Spain’s export industry increased by 3.1 per cent in January this year and GDP growth is now at 0.3 per cent, which although isn’t any-
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thing to party about, is Spain’s biggest rise in GDP since the beginning of 2008. It’s not a rapid recovery but ana- lysts predict a one per cent expansion this year as the economy is held back by heavy debts, whilst unem- ployment is expected to fall to 23 per cent by 2015.
At the moment there is still 26 per cent unemployment and wages have fallen. Andalucia, Extremadura, Canaries and Castilla la Mancha have been most affect- ed by the unemployment and the popping of the hous- ing market bubble. But growth in manufacturing and services is now creating new jobs and consumer demand is creeping back and the housing market is seeing the first signs of recovery.
Meanwhile, Spanish women have found new avenues into employment and are entering the job market and becoming higher valued than they ever (under the Franco rule women had few rights and women working was frowned upon).
It’s going to be a long road and many Spaniards have yet to feel the positive effects of this change as they strug- gle with day-to-day life. The government has intro-
01 Sports betting arrived in the mid 2000s and then online betting arrived in the summer of 2012 and the structure of the Spanish gaming market changed again. Things began to improve and grow and the players finally began to grasp and welcome the concept of change, development and growth.
02 Today the gaming market is divided between various sectors: LAE lottery with 44 per cent share in GGR; ONCE lottery with 12 per cent; casinos with four per cent, bingos seven per cent, AWPs (B machines) with 32 per cent, betting shops with 0.6 per cent and online betting with 1.4 per cent share. Total GGR was €8.6bn in 2012 a 4.5 per cent drop on the year previous.
duced tough economic reforms and austerity policies to pull Spain back from the precipice of a bailout that was feared back in 2012.
These policies are still causing unrest in the nation from people already struggling to make a living on reduced wages and job losses.
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