Mixed news for Spanish economy

The capital goods sector was the only area to record positive growth (0.1%), with non-durable consumer goods coming in flat at 0.0%. Consumer durables were the worst performing sector, with a decline of 0.4% compared to the previous month.

In more positive news, data published Friday revealed that bankruptcies are down 28.8% for the fourth quarter of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013. The data show that the number of insolvent companies has declined by 29.5% year-on-year.

The report states that 71.4% of companies that are insolvent have fewer than 10 employees. The autonomous regions of Valencia, Catalonia and Madrid accounted for 51% of all Spanish bankruptcies. The Extremadura region recorded the biggest decrease in insolvencies, with claims down 55.9% over the course of the year.

The divergent nature of these reports gives an indication of the still tentative nature of the Spanish economic recovery. The EC revised its growth projections for the country up to 2.3 and 2.5% respectively for 2015 and 2016.