Spain’s economic growth slows in third quarter, King Felipe says Spain must learn ‘lessons’ from deadly floods and more news on Thursday October 30th.
Spanish growth slows in third quarter
Spain’s economic growth slowed slightly in the third quarter as exports fell, preliminary data showed Wednesday.
Gross domestic product in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy rose 0.6 percent in the July-September period from the previous quarter, the national statistics institute INE said in a statement.
That is down from a 0.8 percent recorded in the second quarter.
Exports of goods and services fell 0.6 percent in the third quarter, the statistics office said, ending a two-year run of consecutive gains.
Despite the slowdown, the data suggest Spain remains on track to meet Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s target of full-year growth of 2.7 percent.
The third-quarter GDP data “keep the Spanish economy in positive territory and reflect a growth pattern that differs from the rest of Europe,” economist Manuel Hidalgo of the Esade Business School told AFP.
Spain’s economy has been outperforming its peers, recording 3.5 percent growth in 2024 compared with a one-percent EU average.
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Spain finds 20 tonnes of cannabis in pepper shipments
Spanish police said Wednesday they had seized 20 tonnes of cannabis hidden in refrigerated trucks carrying peppers from Morocco.
Officers stopped a truck carrying 12 tonnes of cannabis resin in false compartments behind boxes of green peppers in the southern province of Cadiz on October 21, Spain’s National Police said in a statement.
Three days later, a second truck carrying eight tonnes of the drug was intercepted near the city of Granada.
Both vehicles had arrived at the port of Algeciras from Tangier.
Twenty people were arrested and jailed on charges of drug trafficking and organised crime.
Investigators said traffickers used lookout vehicles to evade police, and some of the drugs were packaged in candy-like wrappers “aimed at attracting younger consumers”.
King Felipe says Spain must learn ‘lessons’ from deadly floods
King Felipe VI on Wednesday said Spain must scrutinise the causes of last year’s floods to learn “lessons” amid fierce criticism of the response to the country’s deadliest natural disaster in decades.
“It is necessary to continue analysing the causes and circumstances of the tragedy, in order to rigorously and calmly draw the necessary lessons to improve our ability to face other major catastrophes in the future,” Felipe told a state memorial for the victims.
The heavily criticised leader of Spain’s flood-hit Valencia region Carlos Mazón was heckled at a state memorial service for the victims of the country’s deadliest natural disaster in a generation.
Relatives of the victims shouted “murderer”, “coward” and “get out” at Mazón as he arrived for the ceremony in the city of Valencia, an AFP journalist saw.
