Spain Recession Deepens More Than Forecast Amid Austerity
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Spain’s recession deepened more than economists forecast in the fourth quarter as the government’s struggle to rein in the euro region’s second-largest budget deficit weighed on domestic demand.
Gross domestic product fell 0.7 percent in the three months through December from the previous quarter, when it declined 0.3 percent, the Madrid-based National Statistics Institute said today. That’s more than the 0.6 percent contraction the Bank of Spain predicted on Jan. 23. GDP dropped 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier and 1.37 percent in the full year from 2011, INE said.