Record High Unemployment Marred Rajoy First Year

Spanish unemployment rose to a record in the final quarter of 2012 as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government imposed the deepest budget cuts in the country’s democratic history.

The number of jobless approached 6 million people, or 26.02 percent, from 25.01 percent in the previous three months, the National Statistics Institute said in Madrid today. That matched the median forecast of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Spain is home to a third of the euro region’s jobless citizens.

The tally of unemployed wracked up as Rajoy marked his first anniversary in office is the highest since at least 1976, the year after dictator Francisco Franco’s death heralded the country’s shift to democracy. Officials predict the slump in the euro area’s fourth-largest economy will extend for a sixth year.

Bloomberg

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