IV.

Economy

The Basque Country has a well-developed industrial economy. Even the least developed province, Álava, has an important automobile-manufacturing center at Vitoria, giving the province one of the highest percentages of industrial workers in Spain. Guipúzcoa province also has a high industrial employment rate, with activity ranging from ironworking to shoe manufacturing. Commercial fishing is also important. The heart of the Basque Country’s economy, however, is the city of Bilbao and the province of Vizcaya, the center of the iron industry on the Iberian Peninsula. Although production rates have fallen as the use of iron has declined, the manufacture of railway cars, automotive steel, and iron beams is still important. Iron ore from Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa and coal from Asturias provide the iron industry with its chief raw materials. Bilbao serves as an important financial center. Banco Banesto, formerly Banco de Bilbao, ranks among the one hundred largest banks in the world, and a branch of the Madrid Stock Exchange has operated in the city since 1986.

Transportation facilities are well developed along the coast. Bilbao has an international airport and a metropolitan subway system.