LONDON, England - December 26, 2011 - Spain's economy will shrink in the last quarter and faces a bleak outlook for the coming months, its new economy minister said on Monday, heightening fears of a worsening Depression.
Finance Minister Luis de Guindos dampened already gloomy expectations for the economy as the new conservative government got to work on its program of tough spending cuts.
"This quarter the Spanish economy will surely see a downturn and we will return to negative growth," he told a news conference.
"Make no mistake, the next two months are not going to be easy, neither from a growth nor a jobs point of view," he said at a ceremony for his top ministry staff taking office.
The fourth-quarter outlook "is logically going to determine the (economic) profile we will enter in the coming year, which is going to be a relatively slowed-down profile."
The Spanish quoted him later telling reporters that gross domestic product would contract by 0.2-0.3% in the current quarter. Spain's official growth figure for the third quarter was zero.
