Spanish growth picks up
July 30, 2014
Spanish GDP grew by a better-than-expected 0.6 percent in the second quarter compared with the previous three months, where it added 0.4 percent. Wednesday's numbers provided further evidence of the country's recovery from recession.
The country's National Statistics Institute (INE) said the economy grew by 1.2 percent year-on-year, following four consecutive quarters of expansion.
It is Spain's best quarterly growth figure since the final three months of 2007. In the second half of 2008, Spain fell into the first of two severe periods of recession after its property market collapsed in the wake of the global financial crisis.
On Tuesday, the government raised its growth forecast for the full year to 1.5 percent and 2 percent in 2015.
Spain emerged from recession last year, but unemployment remains stubbornly high at just under 25 percent, one of the highest rates in the EU.
ng/hg (Reuters, AP)