1959: The Stabilization Plan and the End of Autarky

Abstract

This chapter analyses the contribution of the 1959 Plan de Estabilización (Stabilization Plan) to the economic changes that occurred in Spain during the 1960s. Economic growth improved in the 1950s after a decade of stagnation, but it was autarkic growth and the country accumulated serious imbalances. By reducing interventionism, initiating a process of liberalization and creating an appropriate economic framework, after two decades of autarky, the Plan contributed to promoting economic growth and helped change attitudes and mentalities. Moreover, the Plan had a long-term impact by allowing Spain to take advantage of a favourable international context during the 1960s.However, the dictatorship and its political interests restricted the scope of the reforms and negatively shaped the long-term evolution of Spanish economic development.

ScholarOne - Was the allocation of infrastructure ideologically motivated? Evidence from the Francoist dictatorship in Spain (1939-1975)

“…As emphasized, among many others, by Clavera et al (1973), Prados de la Escosura and Sanz (1996) or Carreras and Tafunell (2018), the workings of the Francoist economic policy were far from homogeneous over time. Gámir (2000) divided them into three stages: the interventionist autarkic era, the stabilization and liberalization period (culminated by 1959), and the subsequent process of economic growth (Martínez-Ruiz and Pons (2020)). Gunther (1996) perceives a common thread during the whole life of the dictatorship, concerning the determination of public policy outputs.…”