Databases

Continuing with its focus on the productivity and competitiveness deficits of the Spanish economy, the BBVA Foundation and Ivie have launched a new project, the Observatory of Productivity and Competitiveness in Spain (OPCE, in its Spanish initials), whose aims are to generate systematic data and carry out international, sectoral and regional analyses and comparisons on productivity and competitiveness in Spain.

The first edition of the OPCE database has two sections, one with national information and the other with a regional perspective. The variables included in both are the same (productivity of labor, capital, total factor productivity [TFP], contributions of labor and capital to the growth of value added and labor productivity, etc.). The difference between the two is found, first, in the sectoral detail of the information, since, for Spain, it is possible to distinguish among 33 individual sectors of activity, while for the Spanish regions, the first edition of the database only offers information for the economy as a whole. Secondly, the period covered is also different: 1995-2022 for the national comparison and 1995-2021 for the regional.

Given that the official figures of the Observatory’s main variables have a time lag of one or two years, and the importance of obtaining advance indicators of the most recent evolution of productivity in our country, the OPCE will soon include a productivity tracker, which will offer half-yearly information on the evolution of labor productivity, capital productivity and TFP for the national total and by sector of activity.

BBVA Foundation and Ivie (The Valencian Institute of Economic Research). Observatorio de la Productividad y la Competitividad en España (OPCE). Bilbao: València, January 2024. Database available at: https://www.fbbva.es/bd/observatorio-productividad-competitividad-espana/ [consultation: date].