Once mocked as the "Club Med" nations during the major European debt crisis 15 years ago, the economies of Spain, Greece and Portugal now appear to be outperforming their northern peers thanks to a resurgence in tourism. The three nations had to endure harsh austerity measures in the early 2010s imposed by their European Union partners, who were quick to blame their fiscal laxity and lack of competitiveness for their economic woes. But "the situation has changed" since the COVID-19 pandemic ended, said Zsolt Darvas, an economist at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.
"Today, those countries are growing faster than the European Union average, they are no longer seen as black sheep." Spain's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 2.5% last year, while Portugal's economy grew by 2.
3% and Greece by 2.0%. That compares to growth of 0.
4% for the entire 27-member European Union, which was weighed down by Germany's 0.3% contraction, making it the world's worst-performing major economy in 2023. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the three nations to continue to outperform this year, although at a more modest pace.
It sees growth this year of 2.4% in Spain, 1.7% in Portugal and 2.
0% in Greece. Spain's economy is taking off "like a rocket," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said recently. The country is "the locomotive" of job creation in the EU, he added on Thursday.
Economists say this turnaround is largely due to a strong rebound in tourism , which reached record le.
