Process for producing acrylic ester

A process for producing an acrylic ester with excellent economic efficiency, which can eliminate the conventional problems to maintain the stable quality and the low unit consumption of raw materials, in the process for producing an acrylic ester using acrylic acid containing high-boiling acid components influencing the loss in quality and the unit consumption of raw materials, and an aliphatic or alicyclic alcohol having from 5 to 8 carbon atoms, as raw materials, and using a strongly acidic cation exchange resin as a catalyst. In such a process for producing an acrylic ester, a crude acrylic ester withdrawn from the bottom of a low-boiling separation column is supplied to a rectifying column, a rectified acrylic ester is taken out from the top of the rectifying column, while a high-boiling substance containing an acrylic ester, which is withdrawn from the bottom of the rectifying column, is supplied to a high-boiling separation column and/or a thin-film evaporator to separate it into an acrylic ester compon