As a result, year-on-year economic growth remained at 2.7%.

Spain's GDP also outperformed the eurozone, where the economy grew by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter between April and June after stagnating at the start of the year. Spain once again led economic growth in the second quarter among the eurozone's largest economies, compared with the quarterly growth of 0.2% in Germany, France and Italy.

However, Ireland (+3.9%), Lithuania (+1.7%) and Sweden (+1.4%) led growth across the EU-27 as a whole.

In the second quarter, domestic demand contributed 0.6% to quarter-on-quarter growth in GDP, while external demand made a positive contribution of 0.1%. On a year-on-year basis, the contribution to economic growth was 3.3%, while external demand made a negative contribution of 0.6%.

Domestic demand remained strong as household spending continued to be one of the "drivers" of the economy. This indicator showed a quarterly increase of 0.7% and a year-on-year rise of 3.2%, underpinned by the strength of the labour market.

Behind this momentum lies investment. Gross fixed capital formation grew by 0.4% during the quarter and by a further 5.1% year-on-year.

The sectors that have seen the strongest growth over the last 12 months were intellectual property products (+7.7%) and construction (+5.2%). Industry also drove the economy between April and July, growing by 1% quarter-on-quarter.

Based on these figures, according to the breakdown provided by the INE, GDP has now recorded 24 consecutive quarters of positive quarter-on-quarter growth and 21 consecutive quarters of year-on-year growth.

Cumulative growth for the year to date now stands at 2.2%, which supports the forecast that the Spanish economy will grow by 2.6% this financial year, in line with government projections.

Productivity, which is failing to pick up, overshadows these positive macroeconomic figures. According to data, productivity per hour actually worked fell by 0.2% quarter-on-quarter and recorded a 0.1% year-on-year decline.

At the same time, hours actually worked rose by 2.8% year-on-year, 0.6% more than in the previous month, representing a quarter-on-quarter increase of 0.8%, while full-time equivalent jobs rose by 2.3% year-on-year and by a further 0.4% quarter-on-quarter.

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