MADRID -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, slowing from the revised growth of 0.4% notched 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.

"The news we had this morning on economic growth in the third quarter, as well as the data of unemployment yesterday, confirm the strength of the Spanish economy, which keeps on growing with strength," acting Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said on RNE radio station on Friday.

Domestic consumption was still strong during the quarter, though demand from abroad contracted, INE data showed, while foreign visitors' spending in Spain jumped as the tourism sector had a bumper summer.

The government expects gross domestic product to expand by 2.4% this year.

Spain has been outperforming its European peers, such as Germany, whose economy is more dependent on manufacturing and suffers more from the global economic slowdown.

(Reporting by Matteo Allievi, editing by Inti Landauro & Simon Cameron-Moore)