Sept 27 Reuters The Spanish economy showed strength compared to peers in the first half of the year, with growth of 0.9 in the first quarter and 0.8 in the second quarter, according to revised data published on Friday by the National Statistics Institute INE.

The revision brought the annual growth rate up to 3.1, in line with the government39;s upward revision of 2.7 for the year, following successive revisions by public and private organisations.

Analysts expected growth of 2.9, according to a Reuters poll.

In contrast, euro zone peers grew 0.3 in the second quarter of the year and the outlook for 2024 is at 0.8.

Contrary to the weakness seen in other euro zone countries, the Spanish economy showed its resilience to interest rate hikes, with private consumption rising by 1, contributing to the improvement in domestic demand.

Investment grew by only 0.3 on a quarterly basis, despite the deployment of European Union recovery funds.

Services were a strong driver of the economy in the second quarter, with hotels and restaurants growing by 2.6.

But industry also improved its performance, particularly manufacturing, which grew by 1.5 quarteronquarter as it benefitted from falling energy prices and gained competitiveness against other EU countries.

Reporting by Belén Carreño in Madrid and Joao Manuel Mauricio in Gdansk; Editing by David Latona and Ros Russell

Source Reuters