Spanish Economy Contracts Sharply

The Spanish economy contracted sharply in the second quarter, official data showed Friday, confirming that a nascent recovery in Germany and France has yet to percolate throughout the euro area.

Photo: Spanish Economy Contracts Sharply

Gross domestic product declined 1 percent from the previous quarter, when it shrank 1.9 percent, the Madrid-based National Statistics Institute said in a preliminary estimate. From a year earlier, G.D.P. contracted 4.1 percent , New York Times reports.

"This was a bit disappointing and worse than we expected, since a number of indicators had improved in Spain over the last few months," said Dominic Bryant at BNP Paribas. "We do expect Spain to do worse than other European countries for a few years. Germany and France don't have the same imbalances as Spain, which means we expect it to stay weaker for longer." , guardian.co.uk reports.

Gross domestic product dropped 1 percent quarter-on-quarter, slightly more than a Bank of Spain forecast of 0.9 percent, and contracted 4.1 percent year-on-year, the sharpest fall since comparative data began in 1977 , Onet.pl reports.