MADRID: Spain's economy grew for the ninth consecutive quarter, official data showed Thursday just weeks ahead of general elections dominated by economic issues in a country slowly emerging from a devastating financial crisis.
Growth slowed slightly in the third quarter of 2015 to 0.8 percent compared with 1.0 percent in the previous three months, according to the country's National Statistics Institute.
The country is faring better than its European neighbours, though its growth remains slower than that of Romania, Slovakia or Poland, it added.
Spain's economic recovery has been fuelled mainly by domestic demand, particularly by a rise in household spending in a country where unemployment nevertheless remains sky high -- more than 21 percent in the third quarter.
Incumbent Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has made economic recovery one of the mainstays of his campaign for re-election in polls on December 20, after Spain in 2014 came out of five years of recession or zero-growth.
But much of the Spanish population still does not feel the effects of this recovery and opponents of Rajoy's conservative Popular Party say many of the jobs created are precarious or badly paid.
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