MADRID, April 29 (Reuters) - Spain suffered its worst economic contraction since the Second World War in early 2009 as the global crisis and a construction collapse sent unemployment soaring, Bank of Spain data showed on Wednesday.
Spanish gross domestic product fell 2.9 percent year on year in the first quarter and 1.8 percent on a quarterly basis as unemployment hit 17.4 percent, by far the highest rate in the European Union, the central bank said in its monthly bulletin.
The forecasts were in line with private sector estimates and economists said the first quarter could mark the worst moment of Spain's recession, which is expected to drag into next year.
"We've touched bottom, in the sense we've reached the worst rates of contraction," said Angel Laborda at Spain's FUNCAS, a consultancy run by savings banks.
Spain's economic problems spread from its troubled construction sector into service industries during the first quarter amid prolonged turmoil in global financial markets, the Bank of Spain said.
