The sluggish Spanish economy showed signs of growth from January to March this year.
Gross domestic product rose by 0.4%, according to the country's National Statistics Institute.
Compared with a year earlier, Spain's economy grew by 0.6%, the fastest pace in three years.
Retail sales, however, fell by 0.5% in March. The long-endured austerity programme has brought in wage cuts which have dampened consumer demand.
Despite the improvement in economic performance, unemployment continued to rise. The rate hit 25.9% by December 2013 and in the first three months of this year 184,600 more people were left jobless. Now nearly 17 million people are unemployed.
The country’s people suffer the second highest jobless rate in Europe, with only Greece having a greater percentage.
