Updated

Officials have revised Spain's quarterly economic growth figure for the April-June period upward, from 0.7 percent to 0.8 percent, welcome news for a country in its eighth month without a fully functioning government.

The National Statistics Office said Thursday the growth figure for the past year remained at 3.2 percent.

Spain emerged from recession in late 2013 and is now one of the European Union's fastest-growing economies, although its unemployment rate of 20 percent remains the EU's second-highest after Greece.

The latest statistics come as the conservative Popular Party, in power since 2011, seeks support from other parties to try to form a government next week. Two inconclusive elections have left it running a caretaker government since December.