MADRID - Spain would receive the first installment of the European Union recovery funds in the second part of the year, Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said on Thursday.

"We expect (the rescue package) to be approved in June and get paid the pre-financing of it in the second half of the year," she told Cadena SER radio station.

Spain is due to receive around 140 billion euros ($167.66 billion) out of the EU's 750 billion-euro coronavirus recovery package in the next few years. A little more than half that will come as grants, the rest as debt.

($1 = 0.8350 euros)

(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Toby Chopra) ((Inti.Landauro@thomsonreuters.com;))