(MADRID) - Spain's economy, the fifth largest in the European Union, will decline or post a growth rate of nearly zero percent during the second half of the year, the country's central bank governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said Tuesday.

"The information which is available shows a quarterly variation (in growth) of nearly zero or even a decline during the second hald of the year and a continuation of the process of adjustment during 2009," he told a parliamentary economic commission.

He said growth would likely continue to be weak next year although it is difficult at this point to make a forecast.

The international financial crisis had "introduced a great deal of uncertainty in the growth prospectives" for Spain, added Ordonez.

Spain has until recently had one of the developed world's fastest growing economies but growth began to stall last year as higher interest rates, the international credit crunch put an end to a decade-long property boom.

Output expanded 0.1 percent in the second quarter from 0.3 percent in the previous three months as domestic consumption weakened further, according to preliminary figures from national statistics institute INE.

On a 12-month comparison, gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 1.8 percent in the three months to June after 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2008, its lowest level in over a decade.

National statistics office INE will publish provisional growth figures for the thrid quarter on November 13.

The Spanish economy expanded by 3.7 percent last year.

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