Spain Raises 2017 Growth Forecast

Spain's economy minister on Tuesday raised the government's growth forecast for 2017 to "around three percent" from 2.7 percent due to a stronger-than-expected performance at the start of the year.

"We started this year at cruising speed, which indicates growth will be around three percent," Luis de Guindos told lawmakers during a debate on this year's budget.

He said that Spain's gross domestic product  growth may "even be very similar to that of last year", when the economy grew by 3.2 percent -- double the eurozone average.

After a severe crisis -- caused largely when a property bubble burst in 2008 -- Spain is on the road to recovery.

The Spanish economy has benefited from a record number of foreign visitors, strong exports, low interest rates and low oil prices.

But the unemployment rate, while falling, remains high at 18.7 percent, the second highest level in the eurozone after Greece's.

De Guindos reiterated that the government's aim was to lower unemployment to 16.6 percent this year, down from a peak of close to 27 percent in 2013 at the height of the economic crisis.