Spain's economy slipped into recession in the first quarter, as domestic demand shrank, with deep government spending cuts, in an uphill battle to trim the public deficit likely to delay any return to growth.
Gross domestic product shrank 0.3 per cent in January-March from the previous quarter, according to preliminary National Statistics Institute data, unchanged from October-December and compared to a Reuters poll expecting a 0.4 per cent contraction.
Madrid is under intense pressure from its European peers to streamline the eurozone's fourth largest economy, reduce a massive public deficit, and fix a banking system battered by a four-year economic slump and a burst property bubble.
"Spain's still very much [in] recession and we think that this isn't going to improve soon. It's likely they'll have to create more fiscal tightening in order to catch up if they wish to avoid going in to plan, and that's going to be counterproductive", an economist at Citi Guillaume Menuet said.
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