The economy of Castile and León maintains its dynamism and grows by 3.2% in the first quarter.

The economy of Castile and León grew by 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2025, consolidating the growth rate of the fourth quarter of 2024. This growth was driven by the services sector and investment, especially the sale of capital goods, and weighed down by agriculture, due to the deterioration in livestock prospects, and by falling prices that will not accompany what is expected to be a significant harvest.

According to the Minister of Economy and Finance, Carlos Fernández Carriedo, the economy of Castile and León exceeds national growth by four-tenths (2.8 percent) and has grown twice as fast as the EU countries as a whole (1.4 percent) and almost three times as fast as the Eurozone (1.2 percent).

However, economic growth in Castile and León in the first three months of the year was three-tenths of a percentage point lower than the average for 2024, which ended with a rebound of 3.5 percent, following the deterioration in growth rates in recent quarters. This trend is expected to continue in 2025, when the largest increases in regional GDP will occur in the first quarters.

Fernández Carriedo acknowledged that expectations were "somewhat lower" and highlighted the fact that 2025 has started "well" and somewhat above expectations, meaning that "the good news" from the first quarter, which maintained the growth rate of October, November, and December, may "somewhat raise" the initial forecast —the Regional Government has estimated economic growth in 2025 at 2.0 percent.

"What we are facing is an average," added the Minister of Economy and Finance, who nevertheless clarified that there are factors that pose "some risk" to the evolution of the economy, such as the evolution and uncertainty surrounding international trade , the lower growth in Castilla y León's client countries, and the effect of tariffs. He added that Spain is projecting a "somewhat more negative" image, in his opinion.

In the specific case of tariffs, he considered that it is still too early to see the impact of these protectionist measures, although he acknowledged that so far there has been no negative effect.

The main growth in the Castilla y León economy on the supply side came from the services sector, which grew 4.3 percent in the first quarter, five-tenths more than the previous quarter, with the strongest growth in information and communications, real estate, and professional, scientific, and technical activities, and to a lesser extent in other sectors. The industrial sector also continued to grow, increasing by 1.7 percent in the first quarter compared to a 0.2 percent decline in the previous period.

However, within the industrial sectors, manufacturing fell 0.8 percent in the first quarter compared to the 5.0 percent growth of the previous quarter, while electricity supply registered growth this quarter in contrast to the decline of the previous quarter. Construction, meanwhile, continued to grow, although its pace slowed by eight-tenths of a percent compared to the last quarter of 2024—2.0 percent compared to 2.8 percent. Finally, the only decline was recorded in the primary sector, which fell 1.2 percent in the first three months of 2025, compared to 10.5 percent in the last quarter of 2024. Agricultural production grew less and livestock production decreased less.

On the demand side, the contribution of gross capital formation, investment, stands out, increasing by 4.0 percent, two-tenths of a percentage point more than in the previous period, due to the acceleration of investment in capital goods and, to a lesser extent, in construction. The minister emphasized that investment in capital goods increased by 6.4 percent year-on-year, 1.4 points more than in the previous quarter (5.0 percent), while investment in construction grew by 2.2 percent, eight-tenths of a percentage point less than in the previous quarter.

For its part, final consumption expenditure grew by 2.8 percent in the first quarter, two-tenths less than the previous quarter (3.0 percent), due to the lower increase in household final consumption expenditure (3.1 percent compared to 3.3 percent in the previous period) and in public administration expenditure (2.1 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively).