According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Spain is set to have the fastest-growing large economy in Europe in 2026.

Among the world’s advanced economies, only the United States is expected to out performSpain.

The IMF has upgraded its growth forecast for Spain’s economy to 2.3%, placing the country ahead of all other European nations and second only to the United States among advanced economies. This revised forecast represents an improvement of 0.3percentage points compared with the IMF’s previous estimate published in October.
It follows a similar note of optimism from Spain’s Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility, which recently forecast growth of 2.4% fort he current year.

The IMF’slatest figures also suggest that Spain had a strong 2025, with economic growth estimated at 2.9%.
This figure is well above the average for advanced economies, which grew by around 1.7%.

It also places Spain comfortably ahead of the United States at 2.1%, the euro area at1.4%, as well as neighboring countries such as France at 0.8%, Italy at 0.5%,and Germany at just 0.2%. Final confirmation of Spain’s GDP figure for 2025 is expected from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) on January 30.

A Positive Long-Term Outlook for Spain

Over the longer term, the IMF forecasts that Spain’s economy will continue to expand in 2027, albeit at a more modest pace of 1.9%.
Even so, this figure has also been revised upward since October and would once again place Spain second only to the United States, which is expected to grow by 2%.

The gap between Spain and Europe’s largest economies is expected to narrow somewhat next year.
Germany is forecast to grow by 1.5% and France by 1.2%, while Italyis expected to remain close to stagnation for the fourth consecutive year, withgrowth of just 0.7%.

If these forecasts prove accurate, Spain will have recorded seven consecutive years of economic growth above the average for the euro area and the EU—something not seen since before the 2008 financial crisis.

Textwritten by: Jonny Erixon, writer, photographer, and consultant, born and raisedin Sweden, living and working in southern Spain since 2001.