December 2024 | No. 495

We dedicate the dossier of the December issue to one of the major determining factors for social well-being and cohesion: inequality. Through the monthly monitoring of internal data that we have carried out since the pandemic, we are able to confirm the downward trend of inequality in Spain, contrary to that observed in the main developed economies, and we stop to examine the recent evolution of Spain’s middle class. In other articles of the report, also using internal data, we analyse the economic impact of the floods in Valencia and how households in Catalan municipalities in a state of drought adjusted their water consumption. In addition, we study the exposure of the Spanish, European and Chinese economies to tariff hikes in the United States.