Spain shrugs off effects of Catalan crisis on economy this year

Spain's economy minister on Thursday shrugged off short-term effects on the economy from the secessionist crisis in Catalonia, a political convulsion that has prompted an exodus of thousands of companies and a slump in retail sales. Fourth quarter growth for Spain as a whole would be the same as the third quarter's, Luis de Guindos said after data showed a continued strong performance in July-September.
Spain's economy grew 0.8 percent between the second and third quarters for a year-on-year rate of 3.1 percent. The Catalan impact was short-term, de Guindos said, sticking to the government's end-of-year growth forecast of 3.1 percent from a year earlier.
"In the fourth quarter, without doubt, Catalonia saw an strong deceleration ... October has not been a good month, but we see a certain normalisation in November," de Guindos said on the sidelines of a conference in Madrid. Catalonia, an industrial powerhouse, is worth around a fifth of Spain's economy, with output similar to that of Chile, and handles a quarter of the country's total exports.