Spain has slipped into a technical recession as its economy shrinks in the fallout of the global financial crisis, the National Statistics Institute confirmed on Thursday.

The country's economy declined consecutively for the last two quarters of 2008, the institute said in a statement.

Despite the downward pressure, the Spanish economy posted a growth of 1.2 percent in 2008. However, it was a sharp slowdown from the 3.8 percent growth rate registered in 2007, the statement said.

The Spanish government has not commented on whether the country's economy will plunge deeper into a full recession in 2009.

Earlier, the Spanish central bank had said the economy is in recession for the first time since 1993 after the country's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted during the final two quarters of 2008.

Spanish GDP fell 1.1 percent in the final quarter of 2008, following a 0.2 percent decline in the previous three-month period, the central bank reported late last month.

Spain's economy, the fifth-biggest in Europe, has been a remarkable one in the continent in recent years with a GDP growth rate of 3.7 percent in 2007.

But it has been badly hit by the global downturn, particularly the construction sector, the mainstay of Spain's economic growth for over a decade.

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2009)