Spanish government revises up its economic predictions

Spain's government has revised up its economic predictions for 2015 and 2016, predicting a 3.3 percent and a 3 percent growth respectively.

The government made this announcement on Friday at the press conference held after the cabinet meeting, when they said that a better performance of the domestic demand and the external sector allowed revising up the country's economic predictions.

The government predicted a 3.3 percent GDP expansion for 2015 and a 3 percent growth for 2016 as opposed to the 2.9 percent previously predicted for both years.

This economic growth would have an impact on job creation and the government predicted that unemployment rate would fall to 22 percent in 2015 as opposed to the 22.1 percent previously predicted, while falling to 19.7 percent in 2016 as opposed to 19.8 percent.

The government also expects 602,000 new jobs created this year, a 3.4 percent more than a year earlier and Spain's Economy Minister Luis de Guindos pointed out that unemployment data for the second quarter of the year, to be released later in July, would be "especially good."

Spain was seriously hit by the financial crisis and its economy grew on a year-on-year basis for the first time in six years in 2014. The 3.3 percent forecast for 2015 is the highest since 2007, just before the housing bubble burst in 2008.