Spain's Ibex-35 stock index closed with losses on Thursday, following the European Central Bank's remarks against a possible slowdown in rate hikes and the release of macro data in the United States that showed the country's economy is slowing.

ECB President Christine Lagarde said at the World Economic Forum that the central bank will continue to raise interest rates and leave them in tightening territory for as long as necessary to bring inflation down to its 2% target.

Also, the minutes of the ECB's December 15 meeting showed the difficult compromise reached by monetary leaders, who agreed to slow the pace of rate hikes from 75 to 50 basis points in exchange for a commitment to several rate hikes of the same amount.

In the United States, weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fell, while single-family housing starts rebounded in December.

"The housing market is in recession and the Fed's regional surveys are weak and show that business activity is struggling," said Edward Moya, an analyst at OANDA in New York.

"However, the initial jobless claims report reinforces the strength of the labor market. The labor market has to break for inflation to continue to fall," he added.

Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market closed down 140.20 points on Thursday, down 1.57%, to 8,793.10 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks lost 1.39%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 2.78%, BBVA retreated 2.06%, Caixabank gave up 1.45%, Sabadell dropped 0.83% and Unicaja Banco lost 2.00%.

Spanish bank Bankinter fell 2.90%, after announcing during the publication of its results that it reached its net profit target in 2022, one year ahead of schedule, thanks to an increase in loan income, but with an increase in costs that took some of the shine off its solid last quarter.

Among large non-financial stocks, Telefónica retreated 1.29%, Inditex gave up 2.36%, Iberdrola added 0.05%, Cellnex fell 1.74% and oil company Repsol lost 0.46%.

(Reporting by Benjamín Mejías Valencia; additional reporting by Gertrude Chávez-Dreyfuss; editing by Marion Giraldo)