among the advanced economies. as a result of the deep - seated recession prompted by the crisis, but also of the structural adjustment carried out since, the spanish economy has recorded current external surpluses in the past five years, which even exceeded 2 % of gdp in the 2015 - 2017 period, despite the strong pick - up in domestic demand during those years. external surpluses, which have been relatively unusual in previous recovery phases in the spanish economy, have been assisted, among other factors, by the gains in competitiveness arising from the containment of labour and financial costs. such gains have enabled companies to compete internationally on a better footing and to increase their exports. in particular, spanish unit labour costs relative to the rest of the euro area fell by 14 % from 2008 to 2018, thereby offsetting practically all the losses in competitiveness, measured by this indicator, built up during the previous expansion. this has been conducive both to across - the - board gains in share in international markets and to greater geographical diversification towards markets with high growth potential. as a result, goods exports rose from accounting, in real terms, for 19 % of gdp in 2009 to 28 % in 2018 ; exporting firms as a proportion of total spanish companies grew sharply as from 2009 ; and the number of regular exporting firms has increased in the past five years by 31 %, with a notable increase in destinations such as asia and north america. likewise of note is that this period of growth has been accompanied by significantly buoyant investment in equipment. specifically, from 2013 to 2018, this aggregate increased in real terms by almost 34 %, compared with the cumulative 14. 4 % increase in gdp over the same period. hence, the weight of this component in gdp stood in 2018 above 10 %, the highest figure for the past three decades. further, this improvement in productive investment has been across the board in terms of productive branches, and notably sharper than that recorded in the euro area as a whole, a development closely linked to the competitive gains and to the intensification of spanish firms ’ export orientation in recent years to which i referred. the other investment component, that linked to construction, has undergone a most significant adjustment in the past decade. this means that, in 2018, following several years 4 / 7 of recovery, this gdp component was still at around 16 % of its pre - crisis level. the downscaling of investment in housing entailed a decline in its weight in gdp to levels

close to 5 % in 2018, in line with spain ’ s peers, compared with 12 % pre - crisis. the reduction in housing investment activity came about in parallel with a decline in house prices which, despite the growth observed in recent years, remain in real terms some 32 % below the nationwide levels observed in 2007, albeit with some cross - regional dispersion. all these developments better position this sector to support economic growth, as indeed has been the case in 2018. the weight of non - residential construction, for its part, has also diminished considerably, largely reflecting the impact of the reduction in public - sector investment spending. beyond these improvements, as i stated in my introduction the spanish economy remains prone to certain vulnerabilities and faces significant challenges, which i shall now set out. first, despite the notable above - mentioned reduction in private debt in recent years, on the latest available data for 2018 q3 the negative net international investment position ( iip ) of the spanish economy stood at 81 % of gdp, and that of gross external debt at 168 % of gdp, levels that are high in relation to other advanced economies and which mark a factor of vulnerability for the economy as a whole. the reduction in the iip to less vulnerable levels will require running current account surpluses for a prolonged period. the continuation and deepening of the gains in the economy ’ s competitiveness posted in recent years should, along with healthier public finances, contribute to entrenching a sustained path of external surpluses. closely related to the foregoing point, the second factor of vulnerability of the spanish economy is that arising from the imbalance in public finances. the sectoral breakdown of the net iip shows how, since the onset of the crisis, the general government ’ s net liability position has increased notably, with the liabilities position of the monetary financial institutions and the rest of the resident sectors declining. despite the considerable reduction in the budget deficit relative to gdp from its peak of 11 % in 2009 to 23. 1 % in 2017, spanish public finances continued to evidence a high level of structural deficit ( estimated by the european commission to be 3 % of gdp, the highest in the euro area ) and of public debt, which currently stands at around 98 % of gdp. against this backdrop, it is worth bearing in mind that maintaining a very high level of public debt over a prolonged period may not only hamper economic growth but also lessen the stabilising capacity of fiscal policy in