Without doubt, the most outstanding aspect of Spain's economic performance at any time during the twentieth century was the burgeoning of industrial production after 1960. Albert Carreras shows that Spain, whose annual rate of growth of industrial production kept pace with the rest of Europe before the Civil War, lagged badly behind the continental average during the period 1935–50. From 1950 to 1985, however, industrial production south of the Pyrenees averaged 6.85 per cent a year, compared with 4.09 per cent for the rest of Europe. Most dramatically, during the period 1960–74, Spain's industrial output expanded at twice the rate of its European competitors by Carreras's reckoning, averaging 11.13 per cent per annum as against 5.03 per cent (Carreras, 1987).

The slow and irregular growth of Spanish industry in the 1940s and early 1950s can be ascribed to a variety of factors, including the damaging effects on consumer spending of a long sequence of bad harvests, shortages of capital and foreign reserves, difficulties in obtaining imported raw materials and capital goods, energy bottlenecks and the dominant mood of political uncertainty. The year 1953, which coincided with the appearance of sizeable United States aid, constituted a turning point. Over the next quinquennium, industry enjoyed growth rates ranging from seven to 10 per cent annually. Even so, the constraints imposed on the Spanish economy by the Franco regime's autarkic strategy meant that expansion was achieved against a background of galloping inflation and a worsening balance-of-payments position.