New data from the Bank of Spain suggests Spain’s economy is growing at its fastest rate in six years. The economy grew by 0.5 per cent in the second quarter, compared to 0.4 per cent in the first quarter, prompting the bank to up its forecasts for Spain’s growth in the next two years.
The bank now predicts Spain’s economy will expand by 1.3 per cent in 20014 and 2.0 per cent in 2015, compared to earlier forecasts of 1.2 per cent and 1.8 per cent.
The bank’s quarterly report is based on estimates, but the positive outlook will be welcomed by the property industry, which is eagerly looking for signs of a resurgence in the domestic market. Unemployment numbers due out this week are expected to show unemployment remains above 25 per cent, but the GDP is expected to grow by 1.2 per cent this year, after falling in 2013, Bloomberg reports.
Spain broke the recession trend in the third quarter of 2013, when it posted slight but positive growth.
“Four straight quarters of growth is a recovery by any standards,” Miguel Cardoso Lecourtois, chief economist for Spain at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA in Madrid, told Bloomberg. “It’s sustainable because it is mostly due to firms investing to increase capacity, which bodes well for industrial output.”
