Xàbia Dossier - 2 Economic Activities

(This is an unofficial, annotated translation of part of the Dossier on Local Background information about Xàbia; original prepared by IMEDES, 2006.)

· The population of Xabia as a whole enjoys a standard of living comparable to the average in the Valencian Community, corresponding to a per capita annual income of between €8,800 and €9,700. This standard, on the other hand, is above the average in Alicante Province (between €8,225 and €8,800 per capita per annum).

· According to the data available, the town has shown in recent years a relatively low rate of unemployment:

unemployment.jpg

· A slight decline in the level of unemployment is observed up to 2003, while in 2004 the level stood at 0.6%, meaning that of every 100 persons available for work, 6 were unemployed, while in Alicante Province and the Valencian Community we find only 3.

· With respect to economic activity in Xabia, 64.35% of the population is employed in the service sector, which may indicate a marked tendency to externalisation, or outsourcing, of production.

· The commercial structure comprises around 570 small businesses (predominantly supplying personal or household goods) and 72 larger companies (mostly primary agriculture, food and tobacco, followed by wholesale businesses).

· As regards potential for tourism, it is worth mentioning that Xabia, within the Marina Alta region, accounts for 20% of the total of tourist establishments, attracting national tourists as well as foreign (principally UK, France and Germany). Registered tourist infrastructure businesses include, among others, 14 hotels with a total of 1,004 beds, 2 camp sites with a total of 1,391 places, 25 businesses providing apartments and 8 travel agents.

· Almost 23% of the working population is employed in the construction sector, largely due to the growth in the building of new residential accommodation.

· The rise in the number of licences for major works, as shown in the diagram below shows an increase in new construction (in recent years over 200 licences annually). On the other hand, the level of redevelopment has diminished.

building.jpg

· One of the traditional mainstays of the local economy is the fishing industry. Even today, the port is one of the largest in Alicante province. At the same time, and with reference to the primary sector, a considerable reduction in the number of agricultural workers is indicated, with only 5.62% of workers in the municipality engaged in agriculture. As well as this quantitative reduction, there is a qualitative change, with cultivated land progressively changing from dry farming to irrigated.

· With reference to the IBI (Impuesto de Bienes Inmuebles - Rates), we find an interannual increase in the past five years of from 0.5 to 18%, this latter percentage (referring to the increase between 2003 and 2004) coinciding with an increase in the number of development licences of 20% (compared to the increase between 2002 and 2003).

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License