Hard-hit Spain is turning the corner
First-quarter growth of 0.4pc comes in at fastest clip since nation's 2008 property market collapse, prompting an upbeat IMF assessment
Spain reported the fastest economic growth since a devastating 2008 property crash, even as 5.9 million people searched in vain for work with the unemployment rate stuck at 26 per cent.
Boosted by domestic demand, Spanish gross domestic product grew at a quarterly pace of 0.4 per cent in the first three months of this year, the highest rate in six years, the National Statistics Institute said.
Economic activity, though still modest, has gradually accelerated since the nation emerged in mid-2013 from five years of stop-start recession sparked by the collapse in 2008 of a 10-year property bubble.
While unemployment remains sky high, at 25.73 per cent in the first quarter of this year, the International Monetary Fund said this week it believes the recovery is here to stay.
We expect the [economic] recovery to continue over the medium term
"Spain has turned the corner," the IMF said in an annual report on the Spanish economy, the fourth-largest in the euro zone. "We expect the recovery to continue over the medium term," the fund said, adding that labour market trends were improving, too.