Improving economic activity again drove a reduction of Spain’s public deficit. However, the public deficit in Q1 shrank by just 1 tenth, of the total 9 required to secure the 2018 deficit target of 2.2%.

Inflation was up 2 tenths in June to 2.3%, in line with figures anticipated by CaixaBank Research.

Should the model forecast prove accurate, the pace of GDP growth would be similar to that of Q1 2018 (0.70% QoQ).

• Inflation was up 1 p.p. in May to 2.1%, 1 tenth higher than the preliminary figure announced by the National Statistics Institute.

The labour market performed very positively in May, as evidenced by a significant 237,000 uptick in the number of social security affiliates, representing a slightly larger increase than the one forecast by CaixaBank Research.

The pace of Spanish economic growth was again robust in Q1 (0.7% QoQ), in line with CaixaBank Research forecasts and the preliminary figures reported by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) a month ago.

Inflation was up 9 tenths in May to 2.0%, slightly higher than the CaixaBank Research forecast.

Improving economic activity again drove a reduction of Spain’s public deficit.

The growth in appraisal prices for housing in the first quarter of the year, which was slightly short of anticipated levels, consolidates the rising trend for housing prices that began in 2015.

Inflation declined 1 tenth in April to 1.1%, matching the INE flash estimate.