(Recasts, adds comment on budget deficit)
MADRID, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Spain is likely to enter recession in the fourth quarter and stay there into 2009 as house building halts and consumer spending plunges, Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said on Wednesday.
He made the comments after final Spanish government growth figures confirmed gross domestic product fell 0.2 percent in the third quarter, marking the first contraction since 1993.
"There has been a contraction in the third quarter and the scenario for the next quarters is very similar to that of the third quarter," Ordonez told reporters after a briefing to the Spanish senate budget commission
A fall in housing investment would intensify with an abrupt halt in housing starts in 2009, he said. Consumer spending will also continue to slow due to labour market weakness.
Impact on public accounts would be a swelling deficit, he warned, likely to approach the European Union limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product.
"In less than a year we are going to go from a surplus of 2 percent of GDP to a deficit that could come close to 3 percent," said Ordonez during the senate briefing.
The government should hold back some public spending power to protect the economy in the event global conditions deteriorate further, he said.
Spanish Economy Minister Pedro Solbes says the government has rolled out over 40 billion euros ($50.5 billion) in tax rebates, cuts and state credit in 2008 and has all but exhausted fiscal measures to stimulate the economy. (Reporting by Andrew Hay; Editing by Chris Pizzey)