Is Spanish less efficient than English?

In my quest to broaden my knowledge of Spanish I've been reading Webster's Worldwide English-Spanish Dictionary. I know that sounds a little odd, but this dictionary is riddled with examples of word usage, each translated into Spanish.

Now THIS is what I should be reading!

In the course of my studies, I've made two observations: most of the Spanish words in this dictionary have corresponding English words. The ones that don't I just ignore (for now)!

The second, more interesting observation, is this: It seems that, almost invariably, Spanish translations of English sentences run between 10 and 50 percent LONGER.

Here are a few examples:

English: Spanish translations of English sentences run X percent LONGER

Spanish: Traducciones al español de frases en inglés ejecutar X por ciento más

English: Spanish books kill trees!

Spanish: Libros españoles matan a los árboles!

English: I can't believe it!

Spanish: Yo no lo puedo creer!

English: Why are there extra words in every Spanish sentence?

Spanish: Por qué hay palabras adicionales en cada frase en español?

English: I apologize if I've offended anyone.

Spanish: Pido disculpas si he ofendido a alguien.

It's a lovely language but, I submit, less efficient than English. Admittedly, it's not as great an impediment to communication as, say, Chinese languages (which I can't imaging typing on a computer). But the economist in me does wonder if the efficiency of a language has a discernible effect on things like productivity & GDP. It would have been more expensive to send a Spanish message when telegraph charges were assessed on a per-word basis (which reminds me of a funny story)...

It's an interesting question to ponder. If only I had time. I've got to run off to read my dictionary.

Enjoy your weekend, or should I say:

Disfruta de tu fin de semana!