Global News Post: Spain

Unemployment Rises in Spain

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</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><b>By Selah Hennessy from London</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Spain-Map-Poster-Print-19x13/dp/B001HJDSWU?ie=UTF8&tag=glob036-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Spain Map Art Poster Print, 19x13" height="220" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B001HJDSWU&tag=glob036-20" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=glob036-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001HJDSWU" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />Spain's Labor Ministry says the number of people filing claims for unemployment benefits rose in August, bringing the total to 4.13 million.  European governments, like many around the world, are struggling to bolster economic growth while containing major public deficits.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The number claiming unemployment benefits in Spain went up by more than 50,000 last month. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Spain's Labor Ministry says the hike is typical of the month of August but, nonetheless, discouraging.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Spain has the largest unemployment rate in the euro area and one of the largest unemployment rates in the world," noted Javier Diaz-Gimenez, professor of economics at the IESE Business School in Madrid. "In fact, our employment rate currently is about twice the euro area average and about three times the unemployment rate in Germany."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Spain's unemployment rate is more than 20 percent.  For those under the age of 25, it is more than 45 percent. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But economic growth does not appear to be on the horizon.  Spain, like a number of European nations, is struggling with a major public deficit. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Greece, Portugal and Ireland have already had to borrow money from their euro neighbors in order to avoid defaulting on their debts.  It has not yet come to that in Spain, and its lawmakers want to keep it that way. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On Friday, the lower house of parliament approved an amendment to the constitution that will force the government to keep its deficit low in the future.  The legislation is now set to go to parliament's upper house.  The controversial move is aimed at calming investor fears over Spain's public finances. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Diaz-Gimenez says controlling sovereign debt means hikes in taxes and cuts in public spending, policies that do little to stimulate economic growth.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Policymakers in Spain face this hard choice between growth and budget stability, and they are choosing budget stability because it is the lesser of the two evils," added Diaz-Gimenez.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Governments across Europe and beyond are facing a similar conundrum. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In Italy, economic experts from around the world gathered for the annual Ambrosetti Economy Forum on Friday.  Worries about recession and slow growth opened the talks, with New York University economist Nouriel Roubini warning of a "significant probability" of a double-dip recession. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Speaking from the conference, Harvard University Economics Professor Martin Feldstein says the outlook in the United States and across much of Europe is grim, not to mention Spain.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"The numbers that we've seen recently for the U.S. on manufacturing, on construction, on consumers' sentiment tell me that the odds have gotten much greater, that the U.S. is going to continue to decline, and that we are going to be in a formal recession before the end of the year," Feldstein noted.  "In Europe, again I don't think you can talk about a single outlook for Europe.  Germany is strong, Greece is in terrible shape, Spain has 20-plus percent unemployment.  So some of the countries are already in economic downturn here in Europe."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that nonfarm payroll employment was unchanged in August, keeping the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent.  14 million Americans are out of work. (VOA News)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=glob036-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Spain" target="_blank">Search Amazon.com  for Spain </a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=glob036-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span></div></div>

Unemployment Rises in Spain

By Selah Hennessy from London Spain's Labor Ministry says the number of people filing claims for unemployment benefits rose in August...

Thousands in Spain March to Protest Economic Crisis

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<b><i>Spaniards angered about the economic situation have been staging regular protests in Madrid since May 15.</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Thousands of Spaniards have marched in Madrid to protest high unemployment and the government's handling of an economic crisis. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">They converged on the Spanish capital's Neptune plaza near parliament from six locations around the city Sunday, calling themselves "indignant" about Spain's nearly two-year-long recession. There were no reports of unrest.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Spaniards angered about the economic situation have been staging regular protests in Madrid since May 15. The movement later spread to other parts of the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Demonstrations also were planned Sunday in the northern city of Barcelona and the eastern city of Valencia. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Many protesters blame the crisis on banks and inept politicians. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has tried to ease the country's large debt burden by cutting government spending, raising the retirement age, and making it easier for companies to fire workers.</span> <b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;">(VOA News)</span></i></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Thousands in Spain March to Protest Economic Crisis

Spaniards angered about the economic situation have been staging regular protests in Madrid since May 15. Thousands of Spaniards have marc...