The Spanish economy outperformed the eurozone’s other big economies last month.
The country is the fourth largest economy in the euro area and it experienced a 1% growth at the start of the third quarter, boosted by the healthy performance of its services sector.
Most of the major eurozone economies seemed not to falter under the strain of the Greek debt crisis, according to the respected Markit business survey, which says it found no signs that the region is about to return to recession.
Markit said it anticipated growth to continue at about 0.4% per quarter.
Chris Williamson, the chief economist at Markit, said: “The eurozone economy showed reassuring resilience in the face of the Greek debt crisis in July. Despite a record deterioration in Greek business conditions amid extended bank closures, the overall pace of economic growth across the region barely slowed from June’s four-year high.”
He noted that Spain is “the current star performer”, with Italy and Germany showing sustained recoveries. “France remains a straggler, but is still joining in the recovery.”
At the same time, the delicacy of the recovery was underscored by data which showed the eurozone’s retail sales had dropped by 0.6% on average in July compared to the previous month.
