Spain economy predicted to grow by solid 0.7 percent in Q4

Spain's Central Bank says strong job creation and buoyant domestic spending is likely to keep the economy growing by a quarterly rate of 0.7 percent in the last three months of the year.

The forecast released Wednesday is unchanged on the third-quarter rate, which was a slight slowdown from the 0.8 percent recorded in the previous three-month period.

Spain emerged from recession in late 2013 and is now one of the European Union's fastest-growing economies, although its unemployment rate of 19 percent remains the EU's second-highest after Greece.

The bank also predicts that Spain's economy will grow by 3.2 percent in 2016 and by 2.5 percent next year.

Official fourth-quarter figures will be released on Jan. 30.