Follow Spain Immigration and stay updated on Spain's economic developments: Despite the ongoing global financial market volatility caused by the partial U.S. government shutdown, Spain has performed remarkably well amidst the turbulence. Driven by the strength of banking stocks, Spain's main stock index surpassed 9,400 points on the 9th, reaching its highest level since July 2011. During Monday's European trading session, the Spanish stock market continued to rise, briefly breaking through the 9,600-point mark.
The rally in the Spanish stock market is attributed to market optimism regarding the country's economic recovery prospects. The Spanish government recently revised its 2014 economic growth forecast upward from 0.5% to 0.7%, while simultaneously lowering its unemployment rate projections for this year and next. The International Monetary Fund also raised its outlook for Spain's economic prospects for this year and next in its recently released World Economic Outlook report, reducing the forecast for the country's GDP contraction this year by 0.3 percentage points to 1.3%, and raising next year's growth forecast from 0 to 0.2%.
In addition, the Spanish Treasury issued 4 billion euros in 31-year syndicated bonds at a yield of 5.213%, marking the first time the department has issued this type of ultra-long-term bond since 2009.
Spain's third-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to grow by 0.2% quarter-on-quarter, a growth that would end Spain's nearly two-year economic recession.
Spain's economy contracted by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter, with a year-on-year GDP decline of 1.7%. Spain's third-quarter GDP data will be released on November 28.