The Minister for the Economy, Pedro Solbes, has admitted that there is every possibility that unemployment will continue to rise in 2009, despite Government efforts to minimise the impact of the current worldwide financial crisis.
The Government created a new €11,000 million fund to stimulate public works within municipalities and create more jobs, but the Minister said that, so far, this has had no effect on the situation.
International agencies seem to be of the opinion that the global economic crisis will actually deteriorate and 2009 will be worse than 2008. In the face of such pessimism, it is inevitable that unemployment will continue to rise.
Solbes stressed that unemployment is the most serious problem in Spain and is the main concern of the current executive.