Spanish Unemployment expected to continue to rise into 2012

 

Spain's 2011 Q4 GDP slid 0.3% on Q3 according to data released yesterday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The figures, which were in line with initial estimates, revealled how the economy grew 0.3% year-on-year compared to 0.8% annual increase in Q3.

Induvidually, domestic demand saw a 2.9% decline, whilst foreign demand grew by 2.2%. Private spending fell by 1.1% and public spending fell by 3.6%.

A number of analysts from the Financial and Banking sectors estimate that the labour market has still not bottomed out, and is expected to continue to fall further still for at least another 6 months, prompting comments that the only good thing that can possibly come out of this situation is an increase in productivity and lower costs of employment.

Elsewhere, Spain's Deputy Minister for the Economy, Fernando Jimenez Latorre, commented how the country's economy may contract more in the first quarter of 2012 than in the last three months of 2011, as the economy edges towards its second recession in as many years.