Spain, Europe’s fifth-biggest economy, entered recession in the fourth quarter for the first time in 15 years official data from the National Statistics Office showed this week. Gross domestic product contracted by 1.0 percent during the last three months of 2008 over the level of the previous quarter and was down by 0.7 percent from the fourth quarter 12 months earlier. The statistics office also reported that the economy shrank by a revised 0.3 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter. Really there is nothing especially new here when compared with the earlier Bank of Spain report. (Via Fistful of Euros)