MADRID, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- The latest economic figures show that the Spanish economy is still in recession, Second Deputy Prime Minister Elena Salgado said Thursday.
Data published by the National Institute of Statistics showed the country's GNP continued to shrink in the final quarter of 2009, Salgado said.
It was the seventh consecutive quarter with negative economic results in Spain, but Salgado was optimistic about future growth. The Spanish economy shrank 3.6 percent last year.
"There is a clear deceleration in the pace of the reduction. It is not a bad result, although it would have been better had it been positive," she said, adding that "there is no risk of us slipping back."
Salgado's words seem to be confirmed by the fact that some areas of Spain witnessed economic growth in the last quarter.
