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

had hitherto been the remit of the ncas. 6 however, a distinction has been drawn between what are known as “ significant institutions ”, 7 which are supervised directly by the ecb ( currently 113 institutions representing nearly 82 % of total banking assets in the participating countries ), and “ less significant institutions ”, which will continue to be supervised directly by the ncas and indirectly by the ecb, with the main aim of ensuring they are treated consistently across the area. the tasks of granting authorisation to credit institutions ( and, when appropriate, the withdrawal thereof ) and of assessing proposals to acquire qualifying holdings are conferred on the ecb irrespective of whether the institutions are significant or not ( “ common procedures ” ). in any case, the ecb is ultimately responsible for the supervision of all credit institutions of participating countries, and may adopt regulations or issue guidelines or general instructions to ensure consistent supervision across the ssm. it may also assume the direct supervision of less significant institutions whenever it deems necessary to ensure consistent supervision. in october 2020, the supervisors of bulgaria and croatia — countries that have not yet adopted the euro — began “ close cooperation ” with the ecb. this is the mechanism envisaged for countries outside the euro area to join the ssm. authorising credit institutions ; authorising the acquisition of qualifying holdings ; ensuring compliance with eu legislation on prudential and governance requirements ; conducting supervision on a consolidated basis over credit institutions ; conducting supervisory reviews and stress tests ; participating in supplementary supervision of financial conglomerates ; performing supervisory tasks in relation to credit institutions ’ recovery plans and the adoption of early intervention measures. the criteria for determining whether a credit institution is considered significant are the following : — size and economic importance : total consolidated assets exceed €30 billion or 20 % of the gdp of the country where the institution is established, or it is one of the three largest institutions of a member state. — cross - border activity : it has subsidiaries in more than one participating country, whose cross - border assets or liabilities represent more than 20 % of its total assets or liabilities. — public financial assistance : it has received or requested direct financial assistance from the european financial stability facility ( efsf ) or the european stability mechanism ( esm ). the ssm regulation also provides for the task of adopting measures in pursuance of macroprudential stability to be conferred on the ecb. 8 to ensure full coordination with the national designated authorities in this