In 2009, Spain had the highest unemployment rate in the European Union. Then, the country went through a decline in construction, a real-estate bubble, and a fall in exports. In the second quarter of 2008, the Spanish economy suffered a recession, like many other countries. Its GDP growth has been above the average for 15 years now, even though it began slowing down at the end of 2007. Nowadays, it is among the 15 top global economies and the top 5 European ones. After a slight economic downturn in the 90s, Spain returned to a growth period. Some of them were the construction of airports, highways, and high-speed trains. The Spanish economy got boosted by several EU-financed projects. The country was the main beneficiary of the harmonization fund of the EU, whose aim was to support poorer countries in the group and reduce economic disparities. When Spain was accepted in the European Union in 1985, foreign investment increased and the market was liberalized. Its objective was to strengthen the economy and promote business in a stable financial environment.
This way, peseta was fixed as the national currency. In an effort to unify the currencies of the country, a decree was released in 1868, establishing the Spanish affiliation to the Latin Monetary Union. The word peseta is derived from the Catalan peceta, diminutive of peça, and it means “small piece.” During the 15th century, pesetas were made of silver and equivalent to the value of two reales. Each escudo was worth several reales and they were finally replaced by pesetas.īefore the euro existed, peseta was the official currency of Spain from 1869 to 2002. The first escudo was a golden coin introduced in 1566. The Spanish escudo (or shield) had two denominations: silver and gold. The Spanish dollar was used in the Americas and Asia, and it became very popular as trading money for international commerce. Eight reales were equivalent to the weight of one silver peso or Spanish dollar, which was presented the same year. These were Iberian coins made of gold or silver. The Castilian King Peter I introduced this standard coin, worth three maravedíes. Real was the official Spanish currency for hundreds of years, from the middle of the 14th century to 1864. In an organic way, many regions began to call their money by different names, until a new form of payment was implemented. Most of the transitions from one to the other took place due to territorial unification. Real, escudo, and peseta were some of the Spanish currencies before the euro. Spanish coins, for example, usually have several monuments and the King’s portrait. While one side of the coin has a common image for all the eurozone, the other one offers a different design in each country.
Euro is the official currency of 19 out of 28 member states: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands and Portugal. Most of the countries from the European Union adopted this new currency to make it easier to travel between countries. The euro was introduced in Spain in 2002.
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