Spain's National Statistics Office says the country's economy shrank a worse-than-expected 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared with the previous three-month period, reflecting the country's deepening recession.

The figure released Wednesday was higher than last week's preliminary estimate from the Bank of Spain of a 0.6 percent contraction. Spain's economy has been shrinking for the last 18 months with unemployment at 26 percent.

The statistics department said economic activity was down 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter from the year-earlier period. For the whole of 2012, it shrank 1.4 percent. The economy contracted by 0.3 percent in the third quarter.

Europe's main statistics office Eurostat unveils its estimate for the remaining 16 European Union countries that use the euro and the wider 27-country EU on Feb. 14.