No recession in Spain in 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008 @ 11:16 AM
Last Thursday Pedro Solbes, the Spanish Finance Minister, said that although Spain's economy has slowed faster than anticipated, it is unlikely that it will lead to a recession in Spain.
After enjoying many years of a construction boom, Spain's growth slowed sharply in the first quarter of 2008 as the boom comes to an abrupt but not at all unexpected end.
In April the Spanish government reduced it's economic growth forecast for 2008 to 2.3% and also reported a sharp increase in unemployment. The previous forecast was 3.1%.
Over the past few years Spain has been the country in Europe creating the most jobs, more than 600,000 per year but the construction slow down means a lot of these jobs are now being lost.