ur leading West
European economies. Its center-right government successfully worked
to gain admission to the first group of countries launching the
European single currency on 1 January 1999. The AZNAR administration
has continued to advocate liberalization, privatization, and
deregulation of the economy and has introduced some tax reforms to
that end. Unemployment has been steadily falling under the AZNAR
administration but remains the highest in the EU at 14%. The
government intends to make further progress in changing labor laws
and reforming pension schemes, which are key to the sustainability
of both Spain's internal economic advances and its competitiveness
in a single currency area. Adjusting to the monetary and other
economic policies of an integrated Europe - and further reducing
unemployment - will pose challenges to Spain in the next few years.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $720.8 billion (2000 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 4% (2000 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $18,000 (2000 est.)

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 4%

industry: 31%

services: 65% (1999)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%:
2.8%

highest 10%: 25.2% (1990)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 3.4% (2000 est.)

Labor force: 17 million (2000)

Labor force - by occupation: services 64%, manufacturing, mining,
and construction 28%, agriculture 8% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate: 14% (2000 est.)

Budget: revenues: $105 billion

expenditures: $109 billion, including capital expenditures of $12.8
billion (2000 est.)

Industries: textiles and apparel (including footwear), food and
beverages, metals and metal manufactures, chemicals, shipbuilding,
automobiles, machine tools, tourism

Industrial production growth rate: 4.5% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production: 197.694 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 57.71%

hydro: 12.1%

nuclear: 28.28%

other: 1.91% (1999)

Electricity - consumption: 189.57 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - exports: 6.23 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - imports: 11.945 billion kWh (1999)

Agriculture - products: grain, vegetables, olives, wine grapes,
sugar beets, citrus; beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish

Exports: $120.5 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)

Exports - commodities: machinery, motor vehicles; foodstuffs, other
consumer goods

Exports - pa