News Summary: Spain's recession continued in 1Q
News Summary: Spain central bank says economy shrank in 1Q for 7th straight quarterly decline
COULD'VE BEEN WORSE: Spain's central bank said that the first-quarter drop of 0.5 percent wasn't quite as bad as the 0.8 percent recorded in the final quarter of 2012. Compared with a year earlier, the economy was 2 percent smaller.
NO JOBS, NO PESOS: The central bank blamed the contraction on a further fall in consumer spending, down 0.8 percent in the first quarter. The unemployment rate is 26 percent.
BETTER NEXT YEAR? The bank predicted the economy will contract 1.5 percent this year and won't return to growth until late 2014.
