ABSTRACT
A lthough Spain did n o t partic ipate in the Second W orld War, its reconstruction process was the m ost unsuccessful in western Europe: Spanish GDP per capita rem ained below its pre-Civil W ar m axim um (1929) until 1954. Only in G reece was econom ic recovery achieved at an even later date, b u t that country had experienced the m ost dram atic fall in activity o f all d u ring the in ternational conflict and subsequently w ent th rough civil war.2 W hile Spanish p er capita out p u t increased by 1.4 p er cen t on annual average du ring 1939-45, by the end of this period it was still well below its 1929 level. H ence S pain’s econom ic perform ance during the war years com pares unfavourably with that o f neutrals such as Sweden, Switzerland o r Portugal.
