(Bloomberg) —
Spain’s biggest ever blackout wiped almost €400 million ($454 million) off the economy, according to an estimate by the country’s largest domestic bank.
Consumer spending by Spanish households slumped 34% on April 28, when most of continental Spain suffered an hours-long power outage, according to an initial estimate by CaixaBank SA, based on the use of cards, online purchases and withdrawals from cash machines. The drop was partly compensated in subsequent days, resulting in a net 15% decrease from what would have normally been spent.
“We estimate that the blackout will have a one-off impact on quarterly GDP of less than one-tenth of a percentage point, less than €400 million,” the bank said in a report, adding the estimate may change as more data is gathered.
The outage started around 12:30 p.m. local time, leaving some 50 million people across Spain and Portugal without electricity. The government in Madrid is still investigating the exact causes for the blackout, which disrupted public transport, telecommunications and retailing.
The Spanish economy is expected to expand by 2.6% this year and 2.2% in 2026. The country has been the standout performer among the euro-area’s biggest countries in recent years. Bloomberg Economics sees an immediate hit of the blackout approaching 0.5% of quarterly GDP, but reckons some of that will likely be recovered in the days and weeks to come.
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