"If there isn't a substantial impact from financial markets on the economy, this is our central scenario and we shouldn't change it until we get data that substantially alters it," Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said in parliamentary testimony.

The Bank of Spain forecasts Spanish gross domestic product will grow 3.1 percent this year, down from 4 percent in 2006, as a result of slowing consumption and construction investment.

The central banker rejected the claim of one parliamentarian that a spike in Spanish August jobless claims pointed to a sharp economic slowdown. Fernandez Ordonez said the quarterly employment survey that will be next published in October is "the indicator we all follow."

"There is no data to support the idea of an acceleration of the slowdown," he said.

Nonetheless, Fernandez Ordonez said that if financial turmoil drags out, weighing on investor confidence, it could become more difficult for Spanish companies and households to finance the expenditure that has driven growth in recent years.

Helping to cushion the impact of financial turmoil on the Spanish economy is a strong banking system, Fernandez Ordonez said, adding that no Spanish banks were facing a liquidity crisis even though interbank lending had nearly dried up.

Fernandez Ordonez said most Spanish banks have a much larger proportion of long-term financing than their European peers.

"They (Spanish banks) have much less need for liquidity," he said. "If the crisis drags on 12 months or more than a year, their obligations would start to mature and then they could have problems."