Spain’s recession deepened more than economists forecast in the fourth quarter as the government’s struggle to rein in the euro region’s second-largest budget deficit weighed on domestic demand. Gross domestic product fell 0.7 percent in the three months through December from the previous quarter, when it declined 0.3 percent, the Madrid-based National Statistics Institute said today. That is more than the 0.6 percent contraction the Bank of Spain predicted on Jan. 23. GDP fell 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier and 1.37 percent over the full year from 2011, INE said. The European Commission this ... (full story)