Spain raises 2022 GDP growth target but lowers next year’s, Economy minister says

MADRID (Reuters) -Spain’s Economy Minister Nadia Calvino on Monday raised the government’s gross domestic product growth outlook for 2022 to 4.4%, from a previous expectation of 4.3% and lowered the outlook for 2023.

“This year all indicators point at a stronger growth than we expected, around 4.4%, in line with other economic organisms,” she told reporters ahead of a meeting with fellow Euro Zone ministers in Luxembourg.

She then lowered the expectation for 2023 to 2.1% down from a prior 2.7%. “The budget for next year is based on a prudent macroeconomic scenario which expects a 2.1% growth,” she said.

The economic growth upgrade comes one week after the statistics institute raised second quarter growth to 1.5% from a previous 1.1% announced a month earlier and amid a three-decade high inflation rate close to 10%.

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro, Belén Carreño and Toby Chopra)