MADRID: The Bank of Spain stated that the economic growth this year would be 2.8%. That would double last year’s figure, which was the first time the country had recorded annual growth since the crisis hit.
Putting the acceleration down to the falling price of oil and the European Central Bank’s €1tn (£0.73tn) quantitative easing stimulus program, the Bank of Spain said unemployment should drop to 22.2% by the end of the year, continuing a steady decline from the 26.1% peak it hit two years ago.
With this an election year in Spain, the tone in Madrid has turned triumphalist. Last month the finance minister predicted the country would enjoy five years of growth of up to 3%, while Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has declared “the crisis is over” – only to be slapped down by the president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, who said that could hardly be the case with 4.5 million people out of work. Backtracking, Rajoy said the crisis was over, but not its legacy.
After regional polls in Andalusia handed 15 seats to anti-austerity party Podemos, 2015 is a big year for Spanish politics. There are also municipal elections in Madrid and Barcelona, another regional poll in Catalonia, and then, in November, the general election.
