Spain’s Economic Recovery

Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy has said that the Spanish Economy is recovering “Better than expected.”

During his annual end-of-term press conference in Madrid Rajoy said: “Things are going better than we expected. We are registering healthy and diversified growth which is here to stay.”

He added: “In less than two years we have gone from being an economy on the brink of a bailout to being one of the economies that grows the most in Europe.”

“We are going in the right direction, but we are conscious that there is still much to do and the problems that we must tackle are still numerous.”

The Spanish economy expanded in the first quarter from growth of 0.4 percent to a better-than-expected 0.6 percent, with the government crediting the the stronger growth with reforms to the labour market and banking system.

Unemployment however, while starting to fall, still remains high.

Rajoy’s speech, described by Socialist opposition leader Pedro Sanchéz as.. “self-complacent” and “triumphalist”, came a year to the day after he was forced to defend himself in Parliament over claims he knew of an alleged slush fund run by Luis Barcenas, the former Treasury Minister.