Spain's economy expanded 0.3% in the third quarter from the previous three-month period, preliminary data from the National Statistics Institute showed on Friday, down from a revised 0.4% in the previous three months.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected gross domestic product to grow 0.2% quarter-on-quarter.

On an annual basis, Spain's third-quarter economic output expanded by 1.8%, down from a revised 2.0% growth in the previous quarter. The growth was faster than the average estimate of 1.6% from the Reuters poll. (Reporting by Matteo Allievi, editing by Inti Landauro)