The labour market posted a good performance during February, as evidenced by the number of Social Security affiliates rising by 81,483, a faster uptick than seen in the same month 2017 (74,080).
The pace of Spanish economic growth remained solid in Q4 (0.7% QoQ), in line with CaixaBank Research forecasts and the preliminary figures reported by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) a month ago.
The sharp increase in housing appraisal prices in the last quarter, slightly sharper than expected, consolidated the rising trend for housing prices, standing for the third consecutive year in positive growth.
The labour market performed positively in the first month of the year, as evidenced by social security affiliates climbing 66,578 in seasonally adjusted terms (more than the average monthly increase of 50,935 in 2017).
The labour market posted a strong performance, but lost some buoyancy in the final stage of the year, as evidenced by sustained employment growth in seasonally adjusted terms, albeit at a slower pace than in previous quarters.