Spanish unemployment expected to remain above 25% until 2016

The Spanish government warned on Friday that it forecast unemployment to remain about 25 percent until 2016, with no improvement on the current figures until 2015.

Meanwhile, growth forecasts have been revised downwards, although the country is expected to exit recession in 2014. Given that government figures tend to generally be optimistic, this doesn’t bode well for anyone living in Spain.

While the Costa Brava benefits from the tourist economy and is therefore spared some of the full misery, the situation is intolerable. People really are suffering, but have also been remarkably patient in the whole. The problem is there is no light at the end of the tunnel after newly five years and membership of the Euro is strangling any economic green shoots that may exist.

Leaving the Euro might be painful in the short term, but at least Spain’s future would be back in the hands of Spain. And something curious to note; more than half of Catalans support independence provided Catalonia was in the Eurozone, falling to much less than half if forced outside it.

But perhaps being outside the Euro would be a much better position for the country. While Spain benefitted enormously from joining the EU, the Euro is doing it no good at the moment at all.

Source: Diari de Girona

Tags: Economy, Unemployment