There has long been a symbiotic relationship between the Spanish economy and British Expatriates (Expats) and the U.K. in general.
FILE: The flip flop sandals of a holidaymaker decorated with the British union flag, sit on the sandy beach in Benidorm, Spain. Photographer: Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg© 2016 Bloomberg Finance LP
The website fullfact.org, reports that 1.3 million people form the U.K. live in other European Union (EU) countries. Of these Spain hosts the largest group of U.K. citizens at an estimated 310,000. France is in second place with 165,000 and in Ireland with 118,000 comes third.
Except for Greece, one could make a good case for Spain enduring more pain than any Eurozone nation during the sovereign debt crisis and economic meltdown. Such was the worry over a Spanish default that in July 2012 the spread of 10-year Spanish debt over Germany reached 6.10%. The subsequent action taken by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the improvement in the Spanish economy took this down to 1.03% at the close of business on March 1st.
No wonder there has been a sense of concern as to what U.K. expats might do if the Brexit process ended in an outcome of no-deal? This was doubly worrying as so much of the Spanish economy had been focused on residential property construction.
When the economy slowed, building programmes ground to a halt abandoned as incomplete by bankrupt developers. Thousands of houses and apartments stood empty. If the British left in droves, property markets would be even more depressed as over 50% of expatriate homes are owned by British citizens.
The majority of British in Spain have chosen to integrate and live among their Spanish neighbours. Only a minority have chosen to live with one another in so-called “Expat Ghettos” that are sprinkled around the Spanish Mediterranean coast.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenpope/2019/03/02/spain-shows-sense-in-dealing-with-british-expatriates/#164df2961a09
0 comentarios:
Post a Comment