Spanish Unemployment rising

Europe’s fifth-biggest economy, has increased at its fastest rate for over 15 years, resulting in a three year high.

In the fourth quarter the National Statistics office revealed that the jobless rate rose to 9.6 percent from 8.6 percent.

This is the biggest increase since 1993 which coincided with the recession in Spain with the number of unemployed at 2.1 million.

What has caused concern among analysts is that the rate of unemployment is occurring whilst the economy is still growing at a health 2.5 percent.

The hardest hit area is the Spanish real estate market, which was kept buoyant by the influx of overseas investors.

Since he global credit crunch, the construction boom in now over.

A growth rate that saw 5 million homes built in the last ten years, the current situation is one where sales have fallen by 25 percent over the year and potential buyers are having difficulty securing funding form banks and mortgage lenders.

Despite this the manufacturing and services industries are still doing well.

The country is being squeezed hard and as a result cut backs are being made, to the extent that the International Monetary Fund says the growth rate will drop to 1.8 percent.

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