Spain's public debt to rise to 124% of GDP in 2017 if growth falls 1% over forecast period
On Friday it was reported that Spain's unemployment rate hit record levels in the second quarter of this year, leaving one in four of the working population jobless. Figures released by the national statistics institute revealed that in the second quarter, traditionally a time when employment grows for the tourist season, there was a rise in unemployment to a rate of 24.6% as a further 53,000 people joined dole queues. That broke a previous record set in early 1994. Late Friday in Washington DC, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) issued its annual assessment of Spain’s economy and it said that : "public debt profile is more sensitive to shocks to growth. Should growth fall by about a little over 1 percentage point over the forecasting period, the debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio could reach 124% by 2017, about 18 percentage points higher relative to the current policies scenario."
-----To continue reading, subscribe to our premium service-----
