Spanish economy to grow by 2.6 percent in 2016

Spain's economy would grow by 2.6 percent in 2016, according to the latest predictions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published on Tuesday.

The IMF has revised down its economic forecast for the Spanish economy from 2.7 percent predicted in January to 2.6 percent.

The organization said that the country's economic growth would slow down this year and the next year it would grow by 2.3 percent.

IMF economic forecasts are different from those of the Spanish government that forecasted a GDP growth of 3 percent in 2016 and 2017.

According to the IMF, domestic demand would grow by 2.8 percent as opposed to the 3.8 percent growth of 2015, private consumption would grow by 3 percent, slightly below the 3.1 percent of the previous year, and unemployment rate would fall to 19.7 percent in 2016 and to 18.3 percent in 2017.

Meanwhile, Spain's inflation rate would stand at -0.4 percent in 2016, as opposed to the 0.9 percent predicted in October, while in 2017 it would stand at 1 percent.