Inflation stood at 1.0% in January, thus matching the flash figure released by the National Statistics Institute on 31 January.

The labour market posted a moderate performance in January, as evidenced by an uptick in Social Security affiliates of 38,179 individuals in seasonally adjusted terms, less than the January 2018 number (58,758).

The current account balance stood at 0.88% of GDP in November (1.02% in October and 1.81% in November 2017).

The Spanish economy ended the year expanding more robustly than anticipated (0.7% QoQ compared to forecast growth of 0.6%) and far outstripping the Eurozone (0.2% QoQ).

Inflation was down 0.2 pp in January to 1.0%, a figure 0.3 pp below our forecast and continuing the gradual declining trend.

The labour market posted a very good performance in the fourth quarter of the year, as evidenced by job creation rallying to 3.0% YoY, after slowing slightly for several quarters.

The macroeconomic figures used in the latest draft budgets were revised slightly compared to those in the draft budgets sent to Brussels in October 2018, including GDP growth in 2019 being lowered to 2.2% (-0.1 pp). 

Should the model forecast prove accurate, the pace of GDP growth would be similar to the 3Q 2018 figure (0.6% QoQ).

Inflation stood at 1.7% in November, matching the preliminary figure published by the National Statistics Institute on 29 November and CaixaBank Research forecasts.

The current account balance stood at 13,339 million euros in September (1.11% of GDP), lower than in September 2017 (1.82% of GDP).