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MADRID (Reuters) – Spain\\\’s economy has started to recover after the severe impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said on Wednesday, citing favourable employment indicators following the gradual easing of a lockdown since May.
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She said 1 million furloughed workers were working again and 300,000 new workers had registered with social security.
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“The recovery phase has already started,” she told parliament, adding that the trend change was backed by various indicators, mainly the latest job creation data.
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While the Spanish economy is heading for the worst contraction on record in 2020, of up to 11.6%, the Bank of Spain forecast the recovery would start in the second half of this year, with GDP likely to bounce back and grow by 7.7% to 9.1% next year.
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It expected the economy to bottom out in the second quarter with a slump of around 22%, but recovery in the tourist-dependent country should be a little stronger than the euro zone average.
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Early indicators, such as Spanish services and factory PMIs, showed businesses partly resumed activity in May after plunging in April.
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Spain is emerging from a three-month lockdown after the virus caused one of the world\\\’s heaviest death tolls.
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(Reporting by Inti Landauro, editing by Andrei Khalip and Giles Elgood)
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