Spain's foreign minister claimed Monday that the Catalan independence crisis had cost the country "a billion" euros as fallout from the turmoil continued to hamper growth in the wealthy region. Luis de Guindos said slowdown in growth in Catalonia, which accounts to around a fifth of Spanish GDP, was hampering the eurozone's fourth largest economy as a whole.

"Catalonia used to have growth above that of Spain, it was one of the drivers of the Spanish economy," he told Spanish radio. "However, in the fourth quarter, it's become a burden." De Guindos estimated the crisis could "easily have cost a billion euros" ($1.2 billion).

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2018