Spain’s Record Blackout Costs Economy €400 Million in Lost Consumer Spending

Spain’s largest power outage on record wiped nearly €400 million from economic activity, according to an analysis by CaixaBank. The blackout, which struck at 12:30 p.m. local time on April 28, paralyzed commerce and transportation across mainland Spain and Portugal, affecting approximately 50 million people.

Card payment data reveals consumer spending plunged 34% during the outage period. While some deferred purchases materialized later in the week, the net loss still amounted to 15% of typical Sunday expenditure. The bank estimates the incident will shave less than 0.1 percentage point from quarterly GDP.

Infrastructure disruptions impacted train networks, telecommunications, and retail operations. Spanish authorities continue investigating the root cause of the grid failure, which originated in Red Eléctrica’s transmission system.