MADRID, May 27 - The Spanish economy grew 0.5 percent in the first quarter of 2003 compared with the previous quarter for a year-on-year rise of 2.1 percent, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Tuesday. That compared with GDP (gross domestic product) growth of 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter in the final quarter of 2002 when the economy was also growing at an annual rate of 2.1 percent.
The first quarter growth was better than indicated by the Bank of Spain earlier this month which estimated that the Spanish economy grew by around two percent year-on-year in the first quarter, and by 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter.//