The productive structure of Spanish regions is changing very slowly in these early years of the 21st century. Moreover, the current economic crisis is having a particularly virulent impact on the most disadvantaged regions and, therefore, on their productive structure. The latest data available in Spain's regional accounts (high school National Statistics Office), referring to the period 2000-2009 (first estimate), confirm the following facts.

The behavior of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth fees for the different productive branches has shown a differential evolution at regional level during the period between 2000 and 2008. The highest growth fees in agriculture was led by Castilla y León, Valencia and Navarra. On the other hand, the Canary Islands, Madrid and La Rioja head the list of regions with the highest fees growth in the energy sector.

The highest fees growth in the industrial sector corresponds to Navarra, followed by the Basque Country. The regions with the best performance in the construction sector were La Rioja, Andalusia and Aragon. Finally, the services sector before the crisis was led by Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia and Extremadura.

Impact of the crisis

The financial crisis, initially, and the economic crisis, subsequently, have not affected the productive structure of the Spanish regions in the same way. Below we present the productive sectors that have grown the most during the period 2000-2009 at the regional level.

After the crisis, we detected excellent results in the agricultural sector in Navarra, Extremadura and Valencia. On the other hand, if we focus on the energy sector, the three regions with the best performance were the Canary Islands, Madrid and La Rioja. The map of the industrial sector places the Autonomous Community of Navarra, followed by the Basque Country, at the head of the Spanish regions. The construction sector is led by La Rioja, Aragón and Extremadura.

added value Finally, the regions of Castilla-La Mancha, La Rioja and Murcia lead fees in terms of gross growth in the services sector.

By way of summary, the above results on GDP growth fees show how the strongest adjustments at the regional level have occurred in the construction and industrial sectors, followed closely by the energy sector. On the margins, the services and agriculture sectors show somewhat less cyclical adjustment processes. At the national level, the results are somewhat similar. The first major economic crisis of the 21st century has significantly reduced the weight of the construction and industrial sectors, not to mention the energy sector.

The current productive map of the Spanish regions has a lower weight of the industrial and construction sectors. And what can we say about the energy sector? Will it be a 'locomotive' sector of the productive structure? Will it be able to generate employment enough to compensate for the destruction of other sectors? Here, the data are very clear and leave no room for doubt: the energy sector represented only 2.3% of GDP in 2009, exactly the same weight as the agricultural sector, compared to 11.7% of the industrial sector, 10% of the construction sector, or 66.6% of the services sector.

In terms of employment, the energy sector only generates 143,000 jobs work at the national level, compared to 15 million in the services sector, or 3 million in the industrial sector. At final, the energy sector, and specifically the renewable energy sub-sector, has excellent future prospects for many Spanish regions, but we cannot place too much confidence in a sector that represents 2% of GDP as a sector generating employment.