Bank of Spain ups 2024 economic growth forecast, again

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's central bank on Tuesday raised this year's economic growth forecast to 2.8% from 2.3% expected previously, predicting an acceleration from 2023 in contrast to the wider euro zone, largely thanks to booming tourism.

It was the second straight outlook upgrade by the Bank of Spain so far this year following its initial forecast of a 1.9% expansion. Last year, the economy expanded 2.5%.

Growth is likely to slow down in the third quarter to 0.6% from the preceding three months, when the economy grew a stronger-than-expected 0.8%, the report said.

The central bank also raised the outlook for 2025 and 2026, to 2.2% and 1.9% from 1.9% and 1.7%, respectively.

As a result, the bank also reduced the debt-to-GDP ratio forecast to 105.4% at the end of this year from a previous 105.8%.

It now expects inflation to clock 2.9% this year, down from 3% predicted three months earlier, and then to gradually moderate to 2.1% and 1.8% in the following two years.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Belen Carreño and Natalia Siniawski, editing by Andrei Khalip)