(MENAFN) Spain escaped from a two-year recession in the third quarter of this year with growth of 0.1 percent, official data showed yesterday, though unemployment remained extremely high, The Peninsula Qatar reported.
Strengthening exports drove the timid recovery in the euro zone's fourth-biggest economy despite weak internal demand.
The growth figure meant a technical end to the recession as measured in terms of contraction in output.
But economists warn of continuing challenges to recovery and expect unemployment to remain painfully high after five years of crisis that have thrown millions out of work and driven up poverty.
The International Monetary Fund has warned Spain's unemployment rate will stay above 25 percent until 2018.
The unemployment rate was 25.98 percent, a slight decline from the previous quarter but still one of the highest in the euro zone. It was Spain's second recession in five years, sparked by the collapse of a building boom in 2008 which last year made the country a focus of concern for the stability of the whole euro zone.
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