Spain has seen its global export share hold steady over the last decade and has almost kept up with Germany. At the same time; France, Italy, the UK, the US, and Japan have slipped down the league.
How has the country managed to do this?
By investment; the investment rate in Spain reached 30pc of GDP during the boom. While a chunk was squandered on construction, most was spent on machinery and infrastructure.
For example, did you know that the Basque Country is the world’s seventh biggest producers of machine tools? It also happens to have as many Michelin starred restaurants as London.
As an example of this industrial might, take the company Industria de Turbo Propulsores which makes the low-pressure turbine engines for half the world’s big passenger jets. The group, part-owned by Rolls-Royce, makes the rear third of the engine for both the Airbus A380 superjumbo, and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. The nickel cobalt blades they produce withstand 1000 degrees heat for 15 hours-a-day for 20 years.
Another example: in Madrid, the computer logistics group Indra has just pulled off the impossible. The 30,000-strong company – which supplied the electronic voting system for the London Mayor’s election – has not only astounded Chancellor Angela Merkel by taking charge of Germany’s upper airspace, it has also won the contract to manage 80pc of China’s air traffic from the control centres at Chengdu and Xian.
Nearby at the ZED Group – which struck rich with the video game "Commandos" and is now the world leader in digital content for mobile phones – chairman Javier Pérez Dolset says that it was a myth that Spain had let wages soar into the stratosphere. "It still costs less than half to produce here than in the UK or Northern Europe, and the level of skill and artistic talent is greater," he said.
Spain is not out of the woods yet though. It must raise €300bn of sovereign, regional, or bank debt this year in a hostile market. Unemployment is stuck at 20pc. There is an overhang of almost 1m unsold homes on the market but the country has verve and enterprise and will not go down without a fight.
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