Post 16: Spain will be just fine!

Spain is one of the world’s most developed countries with a very important role in the international political and economic scenario. The country has well proved its capacity to effectively translate consistent economic growth into significant investments, including communications networks, comprising thousands of miles of highways, high-speed train services and satellite facilities. This capacity and the constant effort made to ensure the competitiveness of its economic structure have enabled Spain to be placed among the world’s main economic players. Even with the current economic crisis in Spain, countries including the U.S. say that Spain will certainly recover and remain on the world stage.

Post 15: concerns of the citizens

This year’s list of concerns of Europe’s citizens is dominated by the financial and economic crisis. Despite being temporarily knocked from first place last year, problems on the labor market have climbed back up to first place in the list of concerns, as anxieties have grown. This is one of the findings of GfK “Challenges of Europe”, a survey carried out annually on behalf of GfK Association. There has been a very steep rise in the level of anxiety about economic stability. Whereas the issue did not appear in the European top ten in 2008, it is now the second biggest concern. Conversely, worries about prices and purchasing power development have eased this year. Unemployment is also the number one concern in Germany as well as Spain.

Post 14: Importing history

Since Spain joined the United Nations in the year 1955, it has shown its keenness to conduct economic trade with partners around the world. It was admitted to the World Bank in just three years after that. Opening up of economy and importing in Spain has been the key component in it's over all growth.

Ever since the emergence of Francisco Franco as the leader of Spain after the Civil War, Spain has made huge gains economically. After its acceptance in the European Union in the year 1986, Spain adopted the new importing system that changed procedures for importing in Spain.

Post 13: The housing decline

Spain's Economy: Spanish house prices have declined by about 11% from their peak in the first quarter of 2008 but further adjustment will follow in the biggest of the at risk economies in the Eurozone.

Sovereign risk and the so-called EMU (European Monetary System) periphery are once again taking center stage, according to economists at US investment bank Morgan Stanley who have argued that the countries generally associated with this group (Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Ireland) are a very heterogeneous bunch and that some of them are no longer a ‘pure' peripheral country such as Italy.

Spain debt rating

Last Wednesday Spain became the third country in Europe to have their debt rating downgraded. After downgrading both Portugal and Greece over the past two weeks, the ratings agency Standard & Poor's slashed its rating of Spain by one notch. This downgrade had an immediate effect on shares in Europe sending them plummeting to a seven week low. Spain's long-term sovereign debt rating was reduced to "AA" from "AA+." The short-term rating was left unchanged at "A-1+." Spain's 2010-2016 economic growth forecast was reduced to an annualized rate of 0.7% from a previous 1%. The growing fear is that the fallout from Greece and even Portugal — which together compose just 5 percent of European economic activity — could be a mere sideshow if Spain, with its much larger economy, has difficulty repaying its debt.

Spain's high unemployment rate

For the first time in over a decade, Spain's unemployment rate rose over 20%. The country has recently rose from 18.8% to 20.1% unemployment rate. This high rate poses a large problem for the young people in Spain. Back when the employment rate was high and the Spanish economy was booming, hundreds of thousands of young people dropped out of school to join the workforce. Now a days these youths are facing very trying times because they are a part of a "lost generation" of unemployed people between the ages of 16-24 with an unemployment rate of 42.9%. This is more the double the overall rate and the highest in Europe. The sole reason behind this outrageous unemployment rate is because the sectors that employ young people in the greatest numbers — fast food, construction, retail — are expected to take the longest to recover. Another factor contributing to this rate is that Spain makes it very easy to put young people to work. Spain is even worse off in comparison to other countries that traditionally have a high unemployment rate among young people. Some examples include Poland with a rate of only 21.2, and Slovakia with a rate of 27.9%.