Desarrollismo

Between 1959 and 1975 the new economic period is the so-called Desarrollismo due to the approval of the Plan de Estabilización Económica, which was passed in 1959 and involved the end of the Autarchy:

• The government tried to get the economic balance and to reduce the national debt.
• Prices and production were deregulated.
  • The Spanish peseta was strongly devaluated in order to attract foreign investment.
  • Salaries were frozen in order to get a competitive workforce.It made many people migrate to other European countries, who sent back foreign currencies to Spain, which reactivated the Spanish economy.

The Planes de Desarrollo began in 1964 and let create industrial hubs across Spain.They involved the development of leading sectors of economy. Foreign investment was essential. All economic sectors improved in this period thanks to these policy:

• Agricultural lands grew thanks to the colonisation of new areas and the use of new techniques, such as irrigation, machinery, fertilisers...
• These measures made tourism become a basic pillar of the Spanish  economy.The Spanish GDP grew between 4 and 7% annually.
• Spanish economy modernised during this period and a middle class grew thanks to these improvements:
• However, the growth was not even and made regional imbalances appear. Industry was mostly concentrated in Madrid and around the coast. Inland Spain remained agrarian and many people migrated to the industrial areas; it is the so-called rural exodus.