Spain set to scale back its economic growth outlook

Bloomberg

Spain is set to pare back its economic growth forecast due to the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said.
“It’s clear that Putin’s war in Ukraine is having an impact not only on the European economy, but also on the the global one, and that there will be a downward revision in the growth numbers for GDP in Spain, Europe and the world,” he said in a interview with broadcaster Antena 3 on Monday.
Sanchez said that more than 20 million Spaniards are registered as in work and that Spain’s economic performance remains “robust.”
At the moment, the government predicts Spanish gross domestic product will expand 7% in 2022. The Bank of Spain at the start of the month cut its growth estimate for 2022 by about one
percentage point to 4.5%.
Senior Spanish and Italian officials discussed Italy’s gas agreement in recent days and intend to meet again later this month, according to
people who asked not to be identified as the conversations were private.
In recent months, Spain has ramped up its LNG imports from other markets, notably the US, reducing its reliance on Sonatrach. The country has more than a quarter of Europe’s LNG processing capacity, though much of that isn’t used.