The Spanish economy managed to maintain a robust growth rate at the beginning of the year despite numerous unfavourable factors, including the weakness of the Eurozone economies, persistently high inflation, and the impact of the rise in interest rates, which were expected to peak in first-quarter 2024. The strong performance resulted from several key factors, with positive labour-market momentum, persistently dynamic immigration flows, and sound international tourism data, which once again exceeded expectations and explain the strong contribution of external demand to growth. On a less positive note, growth in domestic demand remained more modest. 

First-quarter data, together with a slightly more favourable situation overall, have led us to revise our GDP growth forecasts upwards to 2.4% for 2024 and 1.7% for 2025. We expect domestic demand to take over as the key growth driver. A lower contribution from public consumption would be more than offset by a gradual recovery in both private consumption and investment.