Spain predicts 2.5 percent annual growth for next 4 years

MADRID (AP) - The Spanish economy will grow at an average annual rate of 2.5 percent over the next four years- one of the strongest in the European Union - and will create some 2 million jobs, the country's caretaker government predicted Friday.

Presenting the 2016-2019 Stability Program sent to European Union authorities, acting Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said the growth predictions were in line with Spain's plans to bring its budget deficit below the EU ceiling of 3 percent next year, a year later than planned. It envisages a deficit of 1.6 percent in 2019.

The program comes as Spain gears up to hold fresh elections June 26 after no party was able to muster enough support to form a government following an inconclusive election Dec. 20.

Saenz de Santamaria's conservative Popular Party won the elections but lost the absolute majority it had held in Parliament since 2011.

She said the job creation would leave Spain with an unemployment rate of 13 percent in 2019, down from a current 21 percent, the EU's second-highest after Greece.

The minister spoke after the National Statistics Office released figures showing the economy grew by a faster-than-expected 0.8 percent in the first quarter compared with the previous three months. The agency said the economy grew 3.4 percent over the past 12 months.

Spain emerged from recession in late 2013, ending a five-year period that saw some 3.5 million jobs destroyed.

The government recently set a new budget deficit target of 3.6 percent of GDP for 2016 after registering a deficit of 5 percent last year, instead of an agreed 4.2 percent. It initially envisaged a deficit of 2.8 percent for 2016.

The government blames the overspending on Spain's autonomous regions.