Spain's economy beats forecasts with 0.8% quarterly growth

MADRID (Reuters) -The Spanish economy grew at a faster-than-expected rate in the third quarter to again outpace its European peers thanks to a strong tourism season and exports, preliminary data showed on Wednesday.

Spain's gross domestic product grew 0.8% in the third quarter from the previous three months, the same pace of expansion as in the second quarter, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said. Year-on-year it grew 3.4%, an acceleration from the 3.2% registered in the previous three months.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected GDP to grow 0.6% quarter-on-quarter and 3.0% year-on-year.

"Today's data show how strong and balanced the Spanish economy is," Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said. The government expects a 2.7% expansion this year.

The Spanish economy's strength contrasts with other large economies in the euro zone.

GDP in the 20 countries sharing the euro grew by 0.4% in the third quarter from the previous three months, beating expectations for 0.2%, but at half the pace of Spanish growth, Eurostat data showed on Wednesday.

While Germany and France performed marginally better than expected, posting growth of 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively, Italy's GDP stagnated in the quarter.

(Reporting by Tiago Brandao and Inti Landauro, editing by Andrei Khalip and Jan Harvey)

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