No economic risk for Spain from Catalan dispute: IMF

The is no current risk to Spain's solid economic growth from the separatist crisis in the country's Catalonia province, a senior International Monetary Fund official said Friday.
The Catalan dispute "is a political issue," which could potentially create a drag on growth, but there are none currently apparent, said Poul Thomsen, head of the IMF's European Department.
"I am not concerned about risks being on the downside in the near term," he told reporters during the IMF spring meetings, which go through Saturday.
Spain's growth in fact "has for a long time been surprising on the upside," he said.
The fund in its latest World Economic Outlook released this week upgraded the forecast for this year by four tenths to 2.8 percent.