Spanish economy to contract by 1.5 pct in 2013: IMF

MADRID, Jan 23 (Xinhua) -- Spain's GDP will contract by 1.5 percent in 2013, according to data published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday.

This showed a higher contraction for Spain's economy in comparison with predictions made by the institution in October when the IMF said Spain's GDP would contract by 1.3 percent.

Prospects for 2014 are also worse than those published in October as the IMF predicted its economy will grow at 0.8 percent next year while in October the institution said it would show a 1 percent expansion.

Moreover, both predictions are different from those provided by the Spanish government, which predicted a 0.5 percent contraction in 2013 and a growth of 1.2 percent in 2014.

Meanwhile, the IMF said the Spanish economy would contract by 1.4 percent in 2012 and the Bank of Spain put the figure at 1.3 percent.

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