Spain’s GDP growth slows to 0.3% in Q1 as Madrid readies cut to 2022 outlook

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s economy expanded 0.3% in the first quarter from the second, preliminary data showed on Friday, slowing down from 2.2% in the previous three months as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing energy shock weighed on global growth.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected gross domestic product to rise 0.5% quarter on quarter.

Spiralling inflation, exacerbated by the Ukraine crisis and a Spanish truck drivers’ strike in March, dragged down household spending by 3.7% over the quarter, the National Statistics Institute data showed.

On an annual basis output expanded by 6.4%, roughly inline with a Reuters poll for 6.5% growth as the economy rebounded from the first quarter of 2021 when Spain was buffeted by a huge snowstorm that cut transport lines with the capital.

With the Ukraine crisis and consequent pressure on energy and food markets likely to support persistent high inflation, Spain is set to downgrade its target for 7% growth in 2022 at a presentation later on Friday morning.

(Reporting by Marta Serafinko and Belén Carreño, editing by Nathan Allen and Inti Landauro)