Spain’s economic growth is picking up. Between January and March, gross domestic product was up 0.4 percent from the final three months of last year. <br /><br />The latest estimates from the Bank of Spain show that year-on-year GDP rose 0.5 percent in the first quarter. If confirmed, that would be the first annual growth for any quarter since mid 2011.<br /><br />That means the eurozone’s fourth largest economy is on track to meet the central bank’s projections of 1.2 percent growth this year and 1.5 percent next year.<br /><br />Spain’s economy has been shrinking or stagnated since its property bubble burst in 2008, but it came out of recession late last year. <br /><br />At the same time the cost of borrowing for Spain on its medium- and long-term debt fell to its lowest on record as investors hunt for better returns in an era of low interest rates. <br /><br />On Thursday the Spanish Treasury sold 5.6 billion euros ($7.74 billion) of bonds at yields not seen since at least the creation of the euro zone.<br /><br />Another factor is that investors think the European Central Bank is going to be forced to implement measures, such as quantitative easing, to combat low inflation and a strong euro.<br /><br />with Reuters
