SANTANDER, Spain: Spain, the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, started to emerge from recession during the second quarter, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said yesterday.
“We don’t have all the data regarding this quarter” but “it is much less bad than the previous one,” he told an economic gathering in Santander, northern Spain.
Spain has been in recession since 2011 in the second such downturn since the collapse of a housing boom in 2008 that has driven the unemployment rate to a record 27 percent.
And in contrast to the announced signs of growth, Spain paid sharply higher prices for short-term debt on Tuesday reflecting persistent investor concern that the country’s problems are far from over.
Last year Spanish gross domestic product contracted by 1.4 percent, the second worst yearly slump since 1970, and the government forecasts it will shrink again by 1.3 percent this year.
In the first three months of the year, Spain shrank by 0.5 percent on a quarterly basis, its seventh straight quarterly decline.
But De Guindos said the second quarter “marks a turning point, with quarterly growth that should be closer to zero...”
“This turning point may indicate that we were leaving the recession behind us,” he said.
De Guindos’ comments echoed those of Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro who said Monday Spain may be heading for a “turning point” thanks to strengthened public finances that narrowly avoided needing a full-scale EU bailout last year.
AFP
