Spain’s economy is considered progressive, prosperous and expected to keep improving over the years. Spain’s economic freedom score is 67.6, setting its economy as number 49 on the Free Economy 2015 Index (Heritage, 2015). The country bases its profits on its well established, diverse manufacturing industry and being one of the largest tourist destination’s in the world. Its score has increased by 0.4 point since last year, reflecting improvements in six of the 10 economic freedoms, driven by investment freedom, monetary freedom, and the management of government spending, that outweigh declines in freedom from corruption and fiscal freedom (Heritage, 2015). Spain is ranked 21st out of 43 countries in the Europe region, and its overall score is above the world average (Heritage, 2015).

After experiencing a lengthy recession in the wake of the global financial crisis that began in 2008, in 2014 Spain marked the first full year of positive economic growth in seven years, largely due to increased private consumption (World Factbook, 2015)). At the onset of the global financial crisis Spain's GDP contracted by 3.7% in 2009, ending a 16-year growth trend, and continued contracting through most of 2013. (Worldfactbook, 2015). In 2013, Spain’s government successfully restored struggling banks (that were caused by the downward spiral of Spain’s real estate & construction sectors). Exports were resilient throughout the economic downturn and helped to bring Spain's current account into surplus in 2013 for the first time since 1986, where it remained in 2014 (Heritage, 2015). Rising labor productivity and an internal devaluation resulting from moderating labor costs and lower inflation have helped to improve foreign investor interest in the economy and positive FDI flows have been restored (Heritage, 2015).

The economic crisis caused Spain very high losses & nearly