Quarterly Growth Slightly Below Previous High
Catalonia’s economy grew by 2.9% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2026, according to an advance estimate published by the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat) on Friday 6 November 2026. This marks a slight decrease from the 3.0% growth recorded in the second quarter. Compared to the previous quarter, GDP rose by 0.7%, indicating continued expansion. The data positions Catalonia’s growth above both the Spanish average of 2.7% and the European Union’s 1.5% for the same period.
Sector-by-Sector Performance
The services sector remained a key driver, growing by 3.5% year-on-year, unchanged from the previous quarter. Strong contributions came from accommodation and food services, wholesale trade, warehousing, and IT consultancy. Construction grew by 4.3%, the highest among all sectors, though this represented a slowdown from the 5.4% growth in Q2. Industry expanded by 1.1%, down from 1.2% in the second quarter, with gains in machinery repair, sanitation, textiles, and computer manufacturing. Agriculture showed minimal growth at 0.1%, a significant drop from the 1.0% recorded in the second quarter.
The advance of the GDP results for the third quarter of 2026 is provisional and will be updated in the next Quarterly Accounts release, scheduled for 14 December.
This preliminary assessment is based on incomplete data, as the calculation excludes some sources from the final month of the quarter. Final figures will be confirmed in the full release on 14 December via Idescat’s official platform.
Sources: Catalan News.
