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Economy
Economic situation
Over the past 40 years, Navarre has undergone profound socio-economic change. The industrial boom that began in the 1960’s, due largely to the Programme of Industrial Development sponsored by the Regional Administration as of 1964, involved shifting away from a farming-based economy, which at the time employed half the active population, to a balanced and dynamic economy as befitting a modern region.
This outlook laid the foundations for the current state of the economy of Navarre, whose main assets are its balanced productive structure, its excellent geographical situation, its high degree of openness to the outside world and its tax autonomy. Industry has been the driving force behind this transformation.
Navarre began its industrial expansion in the decade of the seventies.
Thus, in the structure of Gross Valued Added (GVA) for Navarre corresponding to 2003, the industrial sector accounts for a share of 31% of the regional total, as opposed to the 20.9% said sector registers in the country as a whole.
The major development of services over the past two decades, in keeping with the process of fostering the tertiary sector pursued by the more advanced economies, has not meant that Navarre has in any way watered down the largely industrial component of its economy.
Labour market
As for the regional labour market, the positive economic evolution recorded in the second half of the 1990’s enabled Navarre to significantly improve on the levels of employment existing at the beginning of that decade and, likewise, considerably reduce its levels of unemployment.
Throughout the period specified, our region has recorded a net increase in jobs of 38,440, at an average annual rate of 2.2%, at the same time as the rate of unemployment has fallen by half, from 11.7% in 1990 to 5.7% in 2002, now standing below the European average.
Navarre is one of Spain’s autonomous communities registering the lowest rate of unemployment.
The significant economic progress made over these years has meant that the Comunidad Foral de Navarra recorded a GDP per inhabitant in 1999, measured in terms of parity of purchasing power, five percentage points above that corresponding to the European Union as a whole; whereas in Spain, which has also made progress in terms of real convergence with the EU, it still remains, nonetheless, 18 points below.
As a result, Navarre is part of the group of Spanish autonomous communities registering the highest indicators of social wellbeing: health care, household furnishings, cultural promotion and leisure.