The budget execution figures available up to March show a slight improvement to overall public sector accounts, excluding local authorities.

Appraisal prices for housing continued their good rate of ascent in the first few months of the year, with a qoq increment of 1.1%.

Inflation stood at 1.5% in April, thus matching the flash figure released by the National Statistics Institute on 30 April.

The labour market again posted good momentum in April, as evidenced by an uptick in Social Security affiliates of 52,192 individuals in seasonally adjusted terms, similar to the figure from the previous month (53,036).

The budget execution figures available up to February show slight impairment of overall public sector accounts, excluding local authorities.

The current account balance stood at 9,380 million euros in February 2019 (0.77% of GDP), down 1.0 pp compared to February 2018 (1.79% of GDP).

Inflation climbed 0.2 pp in March to 1.5%, providing continuity to the uptick posted in the previous month. The figure stands short of the CaixaBank Research forecast (1.8%).

The Spanish economy began the year with somewhat more solid growth than anticipated (0.7% qoq compared to anticipated growth of 0.6%).

The labour market showed a very robust trend in the first quarter, as evidenced by job creation rallying to 3.2% yoy, the fastest pace in the last three years.

Inflation stood at 1.3% in March, thus matching the flash figure released by the National Statistics Institute on 28 March.