A Spanish comeback?

LONG considered one of Western Europe´s weakest major economies, Spain showed some of the highest growth rates within the EU, growing 0.7 percent in the last financial quarter.

Way above analyst´s expectation the figures, released by the Spain´s National  Statistics Institute (INE), place Spain next to Europe´s economic powerhouse, Germany, in economic growth.

Most seems to come from increased customer spending in Spain – increased by over 0.9 percent over the last three months of 2014, in the run-up to Christmas and the New Year.

The major question now must be can this continue? The Spanish export market failed to increase much over the previous year – so are Spain’s citizens just over-using their credit cards or using very hard-won savings from years before?

One positive explanation may be a continuing decrease in unemployment, with Spain seemingly continuing to create work for its citizens.

Spain still has one of the highest jobless rates in the ´developed´ world, with almost a quarter of population officially out of work – but the current trend is one of growth. Perhaps 2015 will be the year when Spain truly leaves it recession problems behind.