According to statistics issued by Joaquin Almunia who is the current European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs the Spanish recession will last until the least the end of this year.

He also predicts that the economy will continue to contract by around 3.8% which is worse than previous estimates by around half a percent. He went on to say that although the recession in Spain was not as bad as in many other parts of Europe it is destined to last considerably longer.

He said the main cause was a massive contraction of the Spanish construction industry.

He went on to say that Spain has suffered the largest increase in job losses in Europe during the first half of the year matching only tiny Slovenia in its unemployment rate.